Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Cowes Race Week Preview
(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week is a key part of the British sporting calendar taking place in early August each year. These dates result from early traditions when the great and the good came to Cowes between Goodwood and the Glorious Twelfth – day one of the grouse shooting season. The event is a great mix of competitive sailing and a vibrant social scene and has evolved enormously since the early days; it now attracts up to 1,000 competing boats, around 8,500 competitors and over 100,000 visitors.

Hosted by the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Cowes Combined Clubs, the sailors are treated to incredibly challenging, fun sailing; especially when each day dawns with a new course on the famous Solent-- full of capricious currents and shifty, gusty breezes. The event puts a premium not only on boat-handling and boat-speed, but on the navigational capabilities of the crew to find all the marks and make it back to the extraordinary finish line immediately off the flag deck onshore lined with massive cannons at the Royal Yacht Squadron.

There is a combination of IRC handicap racing as well as a multitude of J/One-design classes participating. Starting with the one-designs, there will be J/70s, J/80s, J/109s and J/111s sailing. In the nine boat J/111 class, a number of veteran Cowes regatta and race winners will be present, including SHMOKIN JOE (Duncan McDonald), J-DREAM (David & Kirsty Apthorp), MCFLY (Tony Mack), JEEZ LOUISE (James Arnell) and JITTERBURG (Cornel Riklin). In addition, new teams participating in Cowes Week include Sebastien de Liedekerke's team from Belgium will be sailing DJINN, ICARUS sailed by Andrew Christie and John Scott, SWEENY skippered by Kees van Vliet from The Netherlands and TOE IN THE WATER led by Capt Lloyd Hamilton MBE.

Fresh of their participation in an enormously difficult J/80 World Championships in Marseilles, France, some teams are still licking their wounds while others have bitten the bullet and are going for it at Cowes Week! Nevertheless, while entries are down for the J/80s, the thirteen teams are looking forward to some excellent sailing and a number of top teams will be in attendance, including FREDDO (Shaun Priestley), J.A.T. (Chris Taylor), JABBA (Vladimir Phillips), JUICY (Donald Suter), RASCAL (Jamie Diamond), SWALLOW (Chris Body) and WILD WALLY (a family affair with Robert Walters, David Walters and James O'Neill-- J/39 owners).

The field of eight J/70s are certain to see some of the match-ups get heated up again that took place at the J/70 UK Nationals earlier in the year at Cowes. Certain to be tough sledding for many as virtually all the boats have had their flashes of brilliance over the course of the summer. Amongst the leaders could be NORTH SAILS (Ruairidh Scott), BOATS.COM (Ian Atkins), TEAM SPITFIRE Powered by SLAM (Wing Commander Simon Ling RAF) and JENGA 8 (Paul & Marie-Claude Heys). However, since many of the new teams are racing up the learning curve, don't be surprised to see these teams in the front row, including DJANGO (Malcolm Jaques), JUGADOR (Jack Davies), PHEEBS (Simon Cavey) and WILSON COVERS (Ian wilson).

The world of IRC handicap racing will have J teams distributed from IRC 3 Class (J/122s and J/133s) down to IRC 7 Class (the classic J/24s). Starting at the top, there will be strong competition between the three J/133s and the J/122 duo. Yves Grosjean's JIVARO, Ian Dewhirst's JUMP and Angus Bates's ASSARAIN IV are all J/133s that have been accustomed to winning offshore and around the cans. However, the J/122s like JACOBS LADDER and MINT JULEP (David Cule) have also proven they're tough competitors. The proverbial "fly in the ointment" could be the J/120 EL OCASO, that famous American navy blue boat that eclipsed the Caribbean winter circuit, she will be well sailed by Mike Caldwell and crew.

Yet another J/120, RHAPSODIE V, sailed by the French team led by Jean Jacques Godet will be sailing with a somewhat optimized IRC rating. She'll be challenged by the recent IRC UK Nationals Champion, the J/35 BENGAL MAGIC skippered by James Chalmers-- would be interesting to watch this one from the bleacher seats!

IRC 5 Class is the domain of the champion J/97's and the rest of the 35 foot J's (like the J/110 SHADES OF BLUE sailed Ed Holton) and a veritable armada of J/105's. Looking into the J/105 ranks you'll find a cadre of offshore and course-racing champions like KING LOUIE (Fiona & Malcolm Thorpe), FAY-J (Stan Fenton) and JOURNEYMAKER V- Chris Jones. Giving them a run-for-the-roses will be JIN & TONIC (Charles Nicholson and Neil McGrigor), MOSTLY HARMLESS (Natalie Jobling), JACANA (Paul Wood) and JOS OF HAMBLE (Roger Williams). The J/97's will be well represented by JACKAROO, JIGGERY POKERY (Rob Orr), JET (James & John Owen) and INDULJENCE (Nick & Adam Munday, recent winners in the IRC UK Nationals, too).

Another J/97 configured for a lower IRC rating is sailing in IRC 6 Class- Charles Ivill's ETB TYRES JIGGERY POKERY. They will be accompanied by some fast J/92s's like past winners WHO'S TO NO (Richard Sparrow) and J'RONIMO (David Greenhalgh). Also sailing is a the fast, beautiful J/32 cruiser-racer, DOMAINE, skippered by Chris Burbidge.

In the small boat IRC 7 class, two J/24s will be dueling for class honors, including VINYL SOLUTIONS skippered by Simon Lack and JUPITER helmed by Edmund Gatehouse. Sailing photo credit- Rick Tomlinson. For more Cowes Week sailing informationJ/70 Great Lakes PreviewJud Smith J/70 Clinic, too!
(Buffalo, New York)- The inaugural J/70 Great Lakes Championship, sponsored by Towne Auto BMW-Mini, is being held at the Buffalo Yacht Club from August 10th to 11th. Located at the far eastern shores of Lake Erie, and just a stones throw from the famous Niagara Falls, the twenty-five plus J/70s already registered should have excellent sailing.

Renown for getting nice sea-breezes in the afternoon, the natural amphitheater formed by the geographical convergence of the northern shore of Canada merging with the southern shore of New York provides enough heating to give the sailors a reasonable chance of good winds each day from the WSW. Because the race course is not far from the thundering mists of Niagara Falls, east-flowing current does come into play for the sailors on their windward laylines and approaches to the leeward gates-- should make for fun, challenging sailing!

The fleet will have great competition, especially with addition of more new owners who are on the fast, steep learning curve as well as some of the class veterans whom have won or placed well in a number of regatta in the busy 2013 season. Top teams include Jud Smith, Joel Ronning on CATAPULT, Tate Russack (DIESEL), Jen Wulff (JOINT CUSTODY), Don Finkle (JUNIOR), Gary Tisdale & Adam Burns (PIG's EAR), JB Walsh (THING), Kyle Fast (TORQEEDO), Marty Kullman (TOUCH2PLAY), Joe Colling, Marty McKenna and a Canadian team sailing- Andy Papierz on DYNAMO from Toronto, Ontario.

Jud Smith will be running a J/70 speed/ tuning clinic on Friday August 9 and Marty Kullman will also be there assisting the sailors. Please contact Tom Lewin at email- TLewin@roadrunner.com or ph# (716)-861-3700. Sailing photo credits- Bronny Daniels @ Joysailing.com. For more J/70 Great Lakes sailing informationJ/Teams Sailing Copa del Rey
(Palma Mallorca, Spain)- The Copa Del Rey Audi Mapfre is one of the premiere European regattas held every summer in Spain's most famous sailing venue- that glorious mountain island of the international sailing jet set- Palma Mallorca. Hosted by the gracious members of the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the 38th edition of the event will be sailed from July 27th to August 3rd.

So far the sailors have been challenged by the unusual NE’ly wind direction, with tacticians having to search their memory banks to recall the best strategy for what ultimately proved to be an excellent opening contest for Spain’s showcase annual regatta. The day started with a gradient northwesterly breeze, between 15 and 16 knots, that gave the race committee the opportunity to hold a fiercely-fought and spectacular race. However, the breeze gradually died in the afternoon as the gradient and the local thermal were canceling each other out.

The J/80 one-design class, always a popular boat at Copa del Rey, has a field of fourteen teams that includes several of the top five J/80 teams at the recent J/80 World Championship in Marseilles, France. At the top of the list is Hugo Rocha sailing TURISMO DO ALGARVE from Portugal-- the current 2013 J/80 World Champion. He will certainly be challenged racing in Spanish home waters-- as the local teams include Carlos Martinez on DELTASTONE and Jose Maria Van der Ploeg on FACTOR ENERGIA (the 2012 J/80 World Champion)!

Sailing in the ORC 1 handicap class are the J/122 NOISY OYSTER from France sailed by Olivier Parchet and the J/111 BLACK BULL from Italy skippered by Pietro D'Ali from Yacht Club Italia. Sailing photo credits- Jesus Renedo/ Sailingstock.com. For more Audi Mapfre Copa del Rey sailing informationChester Race Week Preview
(Chester, Nova Scotia)- This year's Chester Race Week is sailing from August 14th to 17th and will again have a large turn-out of J's ranging from the classic J/24s, J/29s, J/30s, J/35s and J/36 to the modern J/80, J/92s, J/109 and J/120s- a total of sixteen J's in all, about 38% of the fleet of forty-two handicap racers.

Yacht racing has been a major summer sport in Chester for well over 150 years. Its roots were planted in the mid-19th century when the fishermen raced each other to markets in Halifax or New England. As sailors and fishermen have done forever, they loved to get together and talk shop. Sailing races for pleasure and bragging rights was inevitable. As the gatherings and races occurred more regularly, the Annual Fishermen’s Regatta was born. The regatta was a show case for locally built boats of different designs, as well as for sailing skills.

Adding to the regatta's interesting history will be a special appearance by one of J/Boat's co-founders. Says Chester Race Week Chairman John Curry, "The Alpha 2 White class looks like it’s going to be pretty interesting this year! Rod Johnstone is going to be racing Gary Bennett’s J/35 J'AI TU on that course. Rod is probably best known for inventing the J/24 in his garage. The rest, as they say, is history. All you J/35 owners, if you haven’t already registered, better get on the ball! In addition to sailing in the Regatta, Rod J. has consented to do a “How to Sail your J/Boat in Chester Race Week” session on the Yacht Club steps on Friday morning. There will be a reception in his honour at the Yacht Club from 6 to 8 Friday evening (August 16th) surrounding the prize-giving."

The weather forecast of mostly southerly winds (SE to SW quadrant) of 8-15 kts from Wednesday to Saturday should make for good racing as the partly sunny days could enhance the onshore flow with local sea-breeze effects in the gorgeous bay ringed with islands. Nevertheless, the fleet may experience some showers and thunderstorms for part of the day on Saturday.

Leading the charge in the Alpha 1 Division are the J/35 J'AI TU as well as the J/36 VELOS-ITY (David Morgan from RKYC) against a trio of local Farr 30s. In the Distance 1 class are the J/109 WISC (Paul Rafuse from RNSYS), the J/35 CRACKERJACK (Peter Traves from Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron) and two J/120's- GRAND CRU (Mike Kennedy from Chester YC) and BLACK PEARL (Ross Leighton from RNSYS).

In the Delta Distance Course are the famous J/92 POOHSTICKS (Colin Mann from Lunenburg YC) and the J/80 GOAT WHISPERER (Dale Robertson from RNSYS).

Finally, it looks like the five J/29s may all be sailing in the Bravo 1 course, including PARADIGM SHIFT (Williams/ Matthews), SILVER WOMAN (Andrew Childs), HAKUNA MATATA (J Wood from LYC), RUMBLEFISH (Scott Covey from LYC) and WINTER PROJECT (Brad Fleet/ Ivan Carey from LYC). Also sailing in this class is the J/30 FLUX skippered by Jordan MacNeil from RNSYS). Also sailing are two enthusiastic J/24 teams, WAVE RUNNER (Will Nauss/ Countway from CYC) and ADRENALINE RUSH (Greg Blunden from RNSYS). Sailing photo credits- Heather McGuire For more Chester Race Week sailing informationJ/Sailing News

The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide

The last weekend of July was extremely busy on the international sailing calendar. Top of the list was the famously giant Travemunde Woche sailing in the gorgeous bay northeast of Travemunde, Germany. Hosting thousands of sailors, tens of thousands of spectators and well over two dozen one-design classes of all types, including classic wooden yachts, the host Lubeck Yacht Club also played host to the German J/22 Open during Travemunde Week. Further south in Italy, the J/24s completed yet another major regatta of their summer sailing season with the J/24 Palio di Anzio Regatta.

Across the Atlantic in the Caribbean, the J/24s also completed their incredibly successful and popular summer sailing series in Barbados with their Harris Paints Summer Regatta.

On the American East Coast, the J/70s held their New England's in Marblehead, MA along with the Sperry Topsider Marblehead NOOD Regatta (also hosting J/24 and J/105 one-design classes). In Narragansett Bay, the J/30's held one of their largest J/30 North American regattas ever held at Barrington Yacht Club. On Lake Ontario, the Youngstown YC held their 40th (and last) Youngstown Level Regatta; earmarked by the debut of the J/70 class-- also sailing were J/24 and J/35 one-design classes along with PHRF classes that had J/111, J/109, J/105 and other J's participating. In the Midwest, the Little Traverse Yacht Club hosted their famous Ugotta Regatta with one-design J/105s sailing along with a large PHRF handicap contingent that also had J/42s, J/111s, J/109s and J/35s. Down in Texas, the Texas Offshore Circuit in Galveston Bay, Texas was concluding with an excellent performance by a J/105. Out West the Santa Barbara and King Harbor Yacht Clubs hosted their popular Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race, an 81nm event that attracted a host of J/Teams (J/29, J/30, J/105, J/109, J/111, J/125, J/145, etc) in this sleigh-ride classic that goes offshore around the Channel Islands.

Read on! The J/Community and Cruising section below has many entertaining stories and news about J/Sailors as well as cruising blogs about those who continue to enjoy the Caribbean and the South Pacific, staying warm while others are trying to stay warm up north. Check them out! More importantly, if you have more J/Regatta News, please email it orupload onto our J/Boats Facebook page! Below are the summaries.

For additional J/Regatta and Event dates in your region, please refer to the on-line J/Sailing Calendar.Sleigh-ride to King HarborJ/30 3rd in Class & Fleet Overall!
(Santa Barbara, CA)- The 42nd running of the popular California offshore classic, the 81nm Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race, was truly the "tale of two cities" (the fast boats and the little boats). The weather forecast seemed normal for the race, a light SSE breeze clocking around after the start to SW and slowly building into the WNW at 10-18 kts during the day and, perhaps, dying by evening. Toss in plenty of sun, the spectacular seascapes of the Channel Islands, cute little brown seals swimming everywhere (great white shark lunch!) and amazing schools of porpoises ripping through schools of fish or racing underneath the bow wave and you have the ingredients for a near perfect downwind roller-coaster ride down the California coastline.

As has often been the case, what appeared to be a "normal" SB-KH race was nothing like the sort. While the initial part of the race held true to form, the fleet starting under headsails then switching to mostly Code Zero's or reaching chutes to fetch Anacapa Island, what happened after that was not what the "playbook" was prescribing. Getting to Anacapa Island's northern turning point is a bit like the "Looking Glass" in the Wizard of Oz or, as some have put it, "The Twilight Zone"-- one never knows what's beyond it once you've entered it. Some say go tight along the western side of the island, others says go outside at least 1.5 to 3.0nm to avoid the inevitable wind-shadow cast by the 1,000 ft plus ridge on Anacapa. Seeing little or no wind inside, most all the bigger boats (over 35 feet) set for an outside, longer course. Some exceptions included the J/111, J/120 and others that magically shot the middle-left position and snuck through. But, the smaller boats never had that issue as most simply turned left at the island, set chutes and sailed nearly direct to King Harbor at a bearing of 98 degrees! To confound the "local knowledge" experts even more, the anticipated "geographical shift" often found by sailing towards Point Dume just north of Malibu, not only happened (with the breeze shifting from 300 deg to 270 deg) but the wind kept backing around to 235 deg near the finish line at the entrance to King Harbor.

As a result, the big winners were the later, slower boats to start the race at 12:25pm. The ocean greyhounds that took off first got the short end of the stick in this year's edition. PHRF D class simply cleaned house in the Top 10 overall, with the J/30 FRICTION LOSS taking 3rd in class and 3rd overall while veteran Santa Barbarian offshore champion Larry Leveille sailed his famous J/29 RUSH STREET to 5th in class and 6th in fleet! Good show for these teams!

Starting at the same time as PHRF D was PHRF C class, with the J/33 TIGGER sailed by Fred & Suzanne Cottrell taking class line honors and 2nd overall on handicap, 9th in fleet and 13th overall.

Also starting later and reaping the benefits was PHRF Sprit B class, which was mostly a "J/Navy"- 9 of 10 boats! Leading the charge down south was Brian Kerr's J/92 DOUBLE DOWN, taking class and Sprit Fleet honors and 12th overall. Second in class, 2nd in Sprit fleet and 14th overall was the J/105 ARMIDA sailed by Tom Bollay. Third in class, third Sprit fleet and 15th overall was another J/105-- TWELVE BAR BLUES skippered by Chuck Spear. Rounding out the top five in class was the J/109 LINSTAR helmed by Len Bose and in 5th was Dan McGanty's J/105 AQUABELLA.

Sweeping the top two spots in a duel to the finish for PHRF Sprit A class were the J/111 and J/120. In the end, while Bill Webster & Mike Moorhead's J/111 JATO took class line honors, the winner on handicap was Gary Winton's J/120 SHENANIGANS by nine minutes. They both finished 5th and 6th, respectively in Sprit Fleet and 23rd and 25th overall of 75 boats. Here's a YouTube video of JATO's ride to King Harbor- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQ-grLqGGA

In PHRF Sprit ULDB A class, the J/125 and J/145 had a rough go of it, with one boat heading too low and the other heading too high off on the initial run to Anacapa Island, and then getting too far south (to right of rhumbline) on the way down to King Harbor. Consequently, Viggo Torbensen's J/125 TIMESHAVER finished 4th in class and Carolyn Parks' J/145 RADIO FLYER took 6th.

The host finishing club, Kings Harbor YC hosted their incredibly delicious "shrimp feast" on Saturday afternoon in conjunction with the awards ceremony (part of the secret recipe- cayenne pepper, olive oil, lemon). It was a fitting end to a beautiful race on a sunny day overlooking the Pacific Ocean and harbor.Sailing photo credits- J/Boats and Bronny Daniels @ Joysailing.com. For more Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race sailing informationBLUE MEANIE Crowned J/30 North American Champion
(Barrington, RI)- The Barrington Yacht Club and the Southern New England J/30 fleet hosted this year's near record breaking fleet of nineteen boats in the 2013 North American Championship held in northern Narragansett Bay.

Blessed with good weather and some good sea-breezes during the course of the regatta, the team of BLUE MEANIE skippered by Steve Buzbee and crew from Raritan YC in New Jersey managed to hold off the fast-closing team on EVELYN (sailed by Luke Buxton from Salem, MA) to take the championship. While both boats started off slowly, they both learned the ropes of the Bay as well as how to handle their competitors tactically. BLUE MEANIE's 5-4-2-1-1-3-4-5 for 20 net pts was enough to take the gold by just 3 pts! EVELYN's scoreline of 3-6-3-6-14-1-1-3 for 23 net pts was ten clear of the third place boat-- Chuck Stoddard on FALCON from the host Barrington YC.

The battle for third was quite close, with just four points separating the next four boats! Chuck's team were fast out of the gates the first day, as they should for being the "local hero's", but they couldn't keep up the pressure and managed to tally a 1-2-11-7-8-5-2-8 for 33 pts net. Just behind them by one point was Clare McMillan's Barrington YC team on WICKED, taking 4th with 34 pts net. Fifth was Carl Sherter's Cedar Point YC team on FAT CITY with 35 pts, sixth was Ken Deyett's Kittery Point YC (Maine) team on JEROBOAM with 35 pts (losing the tie-breaker) and seventh was Jon Burt's Hull YC (Massachusetts) team on MARGAY with 37 pts. The balance of the top ten were Kevin Dakan on BLITZ in 8th, class leader Bill Kneller on RHAPSODY in 9th and Mark Rotsky on NEMESIS in 10th. For more J/30 North Americans sailing informationJ/Teams Enjoy Youngstown Level Regatta XL
(Youngstown, NY)- 181 boats raced on five circles in the 40th and Final Youngstown Level Regatta on the weekend of July 27-28. For most of its history the Level has been the largest weekend keelboat regatta on Lake Ontario, at one time hitting a monstrous 466 boats! Those were the days of 50 boat J/24 fleets and one design starts for most of the J designs popular at the time. Since then things had settled down to a more manageable size but the Level still held a prominent place on the calendar for most racers within hundreds of miles. Youngstown Yacht Club finally decided 40 years was enough and the organizers and volunteers deserved a break, so this was the last Level, to be replaced next year with a new event with details to be announced this fall.

Sailors did not want to miss out on the fun of the final event so attendance was up by almost 40 boats over 2012. Conditions were generally favorable, light to moderate with the exception of a brief squall that came in Saturday afternoon that curtailed racing for the day. Various J models were entered in 9 of the 26 divisions, and the largest division in the event was the J70 class with 17 boats. In IRC 0 Bob Hesse and crew aboard the J111 Lake Effect lost the tie-breaker for first place, settling for second as they had done in Key West in January. They have been dominating local PHRF racing this summer. Stephen Trevitt in Crime Scene won the J35 class by two points over Mark DePaul in Remarkable. In PHRF 1 the four J109s took the top four places, with Robert Eckersley's Blue Streak finishing ahead of Ed Werner in Moccasin and Murray Gainer in Lively. Mark Bowman's J29 FROB Untamed was second in PHRF 3 and second and third places in PHRF 4 were taken by Mike Seitz in his J27 Northern Seitz over Dan Mather's very successful J30 Crusader. The PHRF 7 division was made up of J22s and J24s, with Jack Doyle in his J22 winning over the J24s of Kevin McAuley and Tom Raes. In non spinnaker racing Doug Clarke's J35C Rogue Wave was second in M&J 1.

The headline J70 fleet enjoyed their first major one design event on Lake Ontario with boats coming from Newport, the Chesapeake, Lake Erie, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ontario, Indiana, Florida and various NY ports. In addition several borrowed boats were helmed by out of town sailors, including past J105 NA Champ Rolf Kaiser of San Francisco and long time J24 skipper Mark Pincus of Florida. Competition was stiff with 5 different boats taking bullets over the 8 race series. In the end Kerry Klinger edged out Marty Kullman by taking the final race, with Kris Werner finishing third. This was Kris's first taste of real action in his new J70 and he had J24 hotshot Rossi Milev aboard to help him get up to speed.

The regatta was judged to be a terrific success with many fond memories being shared and praise was lavished on the volunteers for their years of hard work. Everyone wants to know what YYC has our our sleeve for 2014 but we aren't quite ready to announce the sequel just yet. Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes @ TimWilkes.com. For more Youngstown Level Regatta sailing informationGreenwald Tops J/70 New EnglandsGHOST Smokes J/105s, AIRODOODLE Two-Peats J/24s @ NOOD
(Marblehead, MA)- The Sperry Topsider Marblehead NOOD regatta featured the inaugural J/70 New England Championship and fleets of J/105s and J/24s-- all co-hosted by the famous trio of yacht clubs in the harbor (Eastern YC, Boston YC and Corinthian YC). Of the 150+ sailboats participating, the largest brand represented were J's with 42 boats (28% of the fleet) sailing in the waters off Marblehead. The sailors were treated to a wide variety of weather conditions and in the end, the J/70s had very close racing with just 15 pts separating the top six while the J/24 and J/105 fleets saw runaway leaders take top honors.

Continuing their string of 2013 regatta wins in J/70s was Bennet Greenwald's team on PERSEVERANCE, taking the top spot by the narrowest of margins over local Marbleheaders- Jud & Cindy Smith on USA 179. In fact, both boats led the fleet from the very first day and after three days of racing ended up tied on total points, but after the toss race was factored in Greenwald's team won by just two points net. Joel Ronning's CATAPULT team again managed to finish on the podium, taking third overall with 20 pts net. Local hero Tyler Doyle (some of famous sailmaker in Marblehead, Robbie Doyle) sailed his best regatta so far, taking fourth in class. Also sailing a strong series was the team of Heather Gregg-Earl & Joe Bardenheier on MUSE Powered by Atlantis Weathergear for 5th place. Heather was also top women J/70 skipper, followed closely by Suzy Leech on JUNKANOO in 6th.

The largest J/class, the eighteen J/105s, were treated to a bit of a "schooling" by another local Marblehead hero, Bob Slattery sailing the famous GHOST. Counting six 1sts for the scoreline, Slattery's team won by a country furlong with six net pts for a 15 pt win, an unusual event to occur in the highly competitive J/105 class. Behind them was the duel for second and third with five boats all having a clear shot at the podium. Locals Fred deNapoli on ALLEGRO SIMPLICITA sailed a steady 3-3-2 in the last three races to seal the deal and grab second overall with 21 pts. Having an excellent regatta was Charlie Garrard on MERLIN with 26 pts, also sailing a solid 2-4-4 to snag third overall. The rest of the top five included Peter & Doug Morgan on STEELAWAY in fourth and fifth was Jon & Stuart Wales on BANTRY.

Last year's J/24 class winner, Jubilee YC's John Denman on AIRODOODLE, simply smoked everyone, counting seven 1sts in their tally for a total of 9 pts net, winning by 8 pts. Second was Mike Taber's team on XINGU, taking the only two remaining 1sts, for a total of 17 pts. A distant 3rd was John Wells on SHELDON J with 25 pts. The remainder of the top five was Mike Lachmayr's BLACKFIN in fourth and Greg Williams GRACE UNDER PRESSURE in fifth. Sailing Photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com. For more J/70 New England's & Marblehead NOOD sailing informationMenzner Crushes Travemunde J/22 German Open
(Travemunde, Germany)- The 124th Travemunde Woche was a perfect rehearsal for the big anniversary in 2014, when the Travemunde Woche celebrates its 125th year. This year's event had ten fantastic days of sailing with great weather and lots of sun. The newly installed SAP Sail Cube, which enabled the public to watch the sailing action "live on-line", was an enormous asset this year. Plus, the newly built seating facilities, which were provided by the town of Lübeck, turned the beach promenade into a real sailing theatre. Dierk Faust, the Chairman of Travemunde Woche for the Lübeck Yacht Club said, “Whereas the wind conditions created a few difficulties for us here and there, the onshore entertainment was fantastic.”

Enjoying every minute of the onshore festivities and excellent race management offshore were the seventeen J/22s participating in the German Open, hosted by Lubeck YC's Travemunde Week team. Taking top honors was Martin Menzner's German crew that included Frank Lichte and Christian Drews, their six 1sts in eight races was a blitzkrieg of the J/22 competition. Second was Reiner Brockherhoff's French team of Christoph Declerque and Charles Micahux with 16 pts. With five 2nds, Frank Lammerskitten's German team of Sven Harder and Martin Hinrichsen could've finished second overall were it not for their inconsistent three 5ths they had to account for in their overall scoreline, settling for third place instead. The rest of the top five included Svend Hartog's German team (Dirk Fischer, Anne Westfehling, Stefanie Schweder) in fourth and Nico van der Kolk's Netherlands team (Stephan Peulen and Julius Jansen) finishing fifth.

Visitors on shore were provided with a fine festival covering 80 thousand square metres with everything that makes life enjoyable. “A total of 200 stand operators of all sizes and with varied and very different offers made the TW a very successful event in Travemünde. Practically everyone was represented from young to old. The Holsten Beach Area had wonderful programmes for older generations, especially the ensemble with the SAP Sail Cube and the Pilot Stage for near-shore race viewing. "The international cuisine on offer to all the spectators, such as “Pfaffenglück” or organic burgers, as well as Italian delicacies, were very well received,” said Uwe Bergman at the end of the event. “We didn’t reach the one million mark of visitors because of the sweltering heat during the second half-– many people preferred to say on the beach!” Sailing photo credits- Bilder von Christian Beeck For more Travemunde Woche J/22 sailing informationQUARTIERE LAVINIO MARE Wins J/24 Palio di Anzio Regatta
(Anzio, Italy)- The second edition of the Palio di Anzio J/24 Regatta was won by Quartiere Lavinio Mare. The crew, skippered by Gianni Riccobono, wins for the second consecutive year. In second place was from Anzio was Marco d'Aloisio sailing DON J and third was Massimo Noons at the helm of JULIO CAESAR with a local crew from Anzio's neighborhood sailing center.

It was a beautiful and historic sailing event blessed by good winds, good race management and organized by the non-profit organization Palio Anzio. The event is a celebration of the history of the port of Anzio and the eight districts that make up the city surround the port.

For some historical perspective, it was in 1761 that Cardinal Antonio Pignatelli of Naples was planning on joining the Conclave in Rome sailing by water. However, he was caught in a gale which forced him to take shelter in the Gulf of Anzio. Here the generous citizens of the town welcomed him for the time necessary to be able to return to the sea and reach Rome, carrying a promise that, if he became the Pope of the Catholic Church, that he would build the port of Anzio. That promise came true, as he was elected Pope Innocent XII. After a few months of living in Rome, he recalled the promise and returned to Anzio, this time by land, to lay the first stone of the new Port of Anzio near the ruins of the ancient port of Nero! Today, the crew of Anzio Lavinio, by winning the trophy for the second time may have the opportunity for a three-peat performance next year! For more J/24 Italy sailing informationCREATIVE DESTRUCTION Ugotta Regatta Overall WinnerJ/111 NO SURPRISE Takes PHRF Overall
(Harbor Springs, MI)- Sailboats from all over head to Harbor Springs each summer for one of the grand Great Lakes sailing traditions- the Little Traverse YC Ugotta Regatta. Sponsored again by Credit Suisse, the Regatta brings together some of the best sailboat racers in the lakes to Little Traverse Bay in between the famous Chicago Mac or Bayview Mac Races.

The series begins with one-design racing on Friday followed a tour-of-the-bay course on Saturday and windward-leeward racing on Sunday. The weekend’s festivities kick off bright and early Friday morning with a fun tradition: a long line of happy people beginning at sun up outside Irish Boat Shop to purchase the 2013 Ugotta Regatta t-shirt. Each year, the shirt design changes and with a limited production, the lines begin early to score a coveted shirt.

Friday night finds a "Welcome to Harbor Springs Celebration" at the Irish Boat Shop for racers only- an awesome cookout with excellent local beers and wines to savor for the masses of sailors-- always an incredibly popular event.

On both Saturday and Sunday mornings, the Club hosts the famous "Pancake Breakfast". Open to the public and racers, the Pancake Breakfast is a delicious way for the boat teams to quickly fuel up before getting on the water. One highlights (and tradition) of the breakfast- the young Racers flip less-than-perfect pancakes over their shoulders to land on the roof of the sail shed behind them.

In this year's event, six J/105s competed. For the tour of bay on Saturday, the course was 18 miles under overcast skies with variable winds building to 18 knots over four hours. Mac/Bayview winner PTERODACTYL (Mark Symonds) participated. Why not do the 2 Mac races and finish buoy racing in Harbor Springs? Little Traverse Sailors, a boat of primarily junior sailors came in second, showing that the J/105 is a great boat for juniors to compete in high-end regattas. Carter Williams' CREATIVE DESTRUCTION won the J/105 division, and was overall winner for regatta (beating out Windquest, J/111s, GL70s, etc.). This was the first time a J/105 won the entire regatta. Taking third overall in class was Mark Symond's J/105 PTERODACTYL-- the Mac Race winner!

The handicap honors in PHRF 3 Class went to the J/111 NO SURPRISE sailed by (remarkably enough), local host and hero David Irish! Their dominant 3-1-1-1 record was, in fact, the best record in PHRF and for the overall regatta with just 6.0 pts to count. Last year's winner, Dick Lehmann's WIND CZAR took 6th overall with a 1.5-3-12-15 tally. Larry Taunt's J/35 BAD DOG was 9th, Larry Schell's J/35 TOUCH OF GREY was 11th and Brad Schell's newly-unwrapped J/111 UTAH was 12th.

In the PHRF White sails cruising division, the J/42 JAYWALKER sailed by Bill Stellin continued her fast cruising tradition to take 3rd overall in her class. For more Ugotta Regatta sailing informationBANKS ESPERANZA Captures J/24 Barbados Regatta(Barbados)- Skippered by Ian Mayers, the BANKS ESPERANZA J/24 team continued an impressive run of form to completely eclipse the J/24 division of the Harris Paints two-day regatta. It was another show of late-season magic from the ESPERANZA crew, who also dominated and won the First Citizens Regatta earlier in the season in Holetown.

In the Harris Paints event, which was also the 30th year of sponsorship by the company, and which featured shifty winds on the southcoast, ESPERANZA's slammed nine other rival crews to win three of four races. They finished fourth in Race 4. “We were looking to make a clean-sweep but we didn't have a great start in the last race, although we made up some ground. Our crew is in good form and we proved that we are capable of challenging the top boats in competition,” said skipper Mayers. Impulse, skippered by Neil Burke, finished second and HawkEye, skippered by Robert Povey, finished third overall while also winning Race 4. Fourth was Die Hard, captained by Robbie Yearwood, and fifth, ISIS, captained by Nicholas Lashley.

The six-member Barbados J/24 Youth team also used last weekend's regatta as part of their preparation for the for BVI –Premier Cup International regatta which is being contested in Tortola on Saturday and Sunday( July 12-14).

Significantly, the Harris Paints regatta was the last of six regattas making up the 2013 Jaguar/ Landrover series in the race for the national championship of J24 racing in Barbados.

Despite their late season heroics, Esperanza were unable to deny Williams Industries HawkEye the championship as they pipped them by one point to secure the right to be called national champions. After six regattas, HawkEye collected nine points while Esperanza finished the season on ten points, for second place in the Jaguar/ Landrover series.

HawkEye earlier in the season won the Taylors Cycle Centre regatta , were second in the Mount Gay regatta in mid-May, and won the Lucky Horseshoe regatta in early June. “It was a very competitive season. Our main goal was to win the national championship this year and our crew made it happen. We came out with a mission and accomplished it,” said Robert Povey, skipper of HawkEye.

Champions in 2012, Impulse finished the season third overall, on 12 points, while Fully Covered, skippered by Bruce Bailey , finished fourth with 16 points. ISIS, skippered by Lashley, were fifth overall on 26 points.

The Jaguar/ Landrover series is organized by the J/24 Club of Barbados and President Gregory Webster praised, sponsors, sailors and other partners for helping to create successful events and an outstanding season. For more J/24 Barbados sailing informationJ/105s Sweep Texas Offshore Circuit
(Galveston Bay, Texas)- The Texas Offshore Racing Circuit (TORC) concluded on July 26 with Galveston Bay Cruising Association's Texas Race Week (TRW) offshore of Galveston. In addition to TRW, the TORC consists of two offshore distance races each of approximately 90 miles. Winds ranged from 5-15 on Thursday to Saturday's 12-19. Surprisingly the weather was not as hot as usual so the sailing was fabulous.

The TRW spinnaker fleet included two J/105s, two J/109s, a Melges 32, an Olsen 30, a Navy 44, and an Express 37. After three full days of racing, Brian Uffelman's J/105 AVICI took first with a spectacular 2-1-1 followed by Bee Bednar's J/105 STINGER in third with 3-4-3. Having participated in the entire TORC, AVICI, STINGER and the J/109 AIRBORNE were the only boats competing for the Texas Navy Trophy. Brian Uffelman's AVICI finished first, Bee Bednar's STINGER second and Dave Christiansen's AIRBORNE third. For more J/105 sailboat information

J/Community

What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide

* J/80 Class Elects Jose Maria "Pichu" Torcida as International Class President! The Cantabrian double World Champion is looking forward to his tenure as leader of one of the world's elite international one-design classes with large fleets competing in the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Spain.

"The J/80 class is definitely the best one-design sailboat in Spain, with over a hundred boats, and it involves many senior sailors. The fleets with significant activity include Catalonia, Baleares, Murcia, Andalusia, Canary Islands, Galicia, Cantabria and Basque Country. From a world perspective, Spain is third in the total number of boats after the USA and France, and in terms of results in international competitions is the first," declares Torcida.

The objectives for his next journey are clear: "Keep doing great with the J/80 class as each day new classes appear and the competition is tough. Working with professionalism and with great enthusiasm, for boat owners and J/80 sailors, I am convinced that the class will have, internationally, many great years ahead."

"Our work in Spain to promote the class has been a success, with over 100 boats on a regular basis battling with powerful fleets scattered around the Spanish coast."

The J/80 class, recognized by ISAF (International Sailing Federation) in 1995, has had in the last ten years impressive growth worldwide. These boats are easy to operate and high performance, designed for a crew of 4-5 people. Its sail plan, with a powerful 65 sqm gennaker, provides the J/80 exceptional performance at high speed, ideal for both professional and amateur sailors.

"The performance of the J/80 is very good and the boat as a whole works well for a lot of people-- size, number of crew, ease of handling, good surfing, and cost," said Jose Maria Torcida, "In Spain we follow the constant work and dedication of Alex Diaz, President of the J/80 Spanish Association. This year marks the seventh championship of the Santa María Cup VII in Hondarribia Spain!"

In Spain, despite being a young class, global successes was not expected from the outset. Since 2007 the J/80 Worlds have seen many good performances by Spanish sailors-- including Pichu Torcida (2007, 2010), Ignacio Camino (2008, 2011), Rayco Tabares (2009) and José María Van der Ploeg (2012). Torcida hopes to expand on that success to help other nations build their J/80 class presence and improve the overall quality of sailing-- the J/80 class should anticipate having two years of exciting leadership by one of her great and enthusiastic champions! Fotos de Jose María Torcida: ELENA TORCIDA. Fotos de J80: Pierick Jeannoutot. For more J/80 International class sailing information

* J/120 SLEDGE HAMMER- here's a great story from the front row of the Bayview-Mackinac Race by team member Tim Lewin. If you recall, this team was the consummate "outsider", spending considerable time and preparation to travel across Lake Erie to participate in this year's Bayview-Mac Race starting just north or Port Huron. Here is Tim's commentary:

"Put eight out-of-town Renaissance sailors on a 40-foot well-designed J/Boat and push everything to the max. That’s the recipe the J/120 Sledgehammer team worked up for this year’s Bell’s Bayview to Mackinac long course race. We all had sailed similar A-symmetrical boats, but never together. Half of the boat is family and the other half might as well be at this point.

The forecast looked light for the first half of the race. We knew of a possible right shift with weakening conditions. Clear air, fast angle and possible jib to code zero change ran through our minds. Off the line at 12:20pm with speed on and little immediate concerns. Up the track at 3pm we found ourselves in third, with the code zero keeping us moving in light conditions. Pete kept us going as fast as possible in the light breeze. We felt wave trains hitting us from dead ahead, noting that more breeze would be coming. Eventually, the first place boat headed up to our angle, changing from code zero to AP-1. They were close enough to hoot and holler if they so chose. On a higher and most definitely slower angle, Hot Ticket went from one o’clock to five-thirty in less than twenty minutes. Feeling refreshed, our crew laughed and had twice baked potatoes and quarters of chicken. The breeze had freshened, rain had come and gone and our next move weighed heavily on all of us. We came close to a land- forced tack. Having the right side in our minds, we took the tack a little after 8pm.

First watch started at the 9pm sunset. Excitement ran through our minds as we now had inter-boat competition. Whoever chomped down the most miles or claimed highest boat speed would have infamous glory! Sloppy waves left us rocking and rolling during off watch. Twelve-thirty came and B team could not take it anymore. A team took control on Port tack. Feeling sluggish and useless, I sat on the rail and dreamed that I could see each wave coming. The full moon helped us a lot throughout our trek to find optimal trim in the ever-changing medium breeze. My dad took the wheel after Crusty kept us going as fast as possible. Feeling exhausted, he handed it over thirty minutes later. Not driving a big boat for quite some time, I was nervous. I did alright for the first couple minutes. Then I stood the boat straight up. Having turned the wheel aggressively, I got it back down to a normal upwind angle. Then, half a minute later, the same thing happened. Crusty exclaimed, “You can’t do that, get the boat back down!” Turning the wheel aggressively once more, I tried to settle her back down. “Let’s tack” Crusty said. At 2:45AM we got the 100 degree shift! It was time to get up and go! The breeze came back on and we were ready for takeoff. Crusty went down to get a short sheet and snatch block and I may have inadvertently gotten him a tad bit wet. Blasting through a close reach at 60-75 degrees true wind, boat speed rang up to 8.5 knots with a varying 5-12 degrees off of our one and only mark’s course. Back braced on the rigid backstay and hands white knuckled on the wheel, I felt like a Volvo Ocean Racer with sheets of water exploding off our bow and landing behind the wheel, soaking everyone from my dad to me. Lying furthest forward, dad easily got my ten years worth of foredeck water exposure in those two hours!

Wake up time for B team, and I watched each of their faces go to confusion. Liz was sick, Tommy got sick and Louis was soon to be. I could not even go down below for most of my off watch because we were slamming off some elevator drop waves. Watching Louis get sick sparked my stomachs interest in doing the same. Bedtime shortly after.

Next wake up was by a hand and not a wave, so I was feeling pretty good. Sun was at 9AM and the breeze was off our starboard side, creating more fun close reaching. Waves shrunk due to less fetch and we were all getting excited about turning the corner and putting up our big red A-sym whomper. Doug nailed the GPS coordinates and we rounded the mark with ease at 9:30am. Ahead and behind us were J/120’s which kept us well motivated. Fowlies torn off and warm coffee livened us. Rotations in and out of trimming, driving and naps kept us all fresh. Hot Ticket headed toward Canada. Flying Irish headed to the American shore, keeping us pickle in the middle. We kept it fast and straight. It was almost time for bed again and Louis came up the stairs with some rather exciting news. Hot Ticket was not the J/120 ahead. We would later learn that it was Kashmir- a J/111! Night came again and it was time for A team to go off watch again.

Three hours later, it was time for A teams last on deck shift. B team had chomped down miles in strengthening wind and waves. Flying Irish was way off toward the American shore and we thought they had been gaining. B team lost track of them at dusk, but we knew they were roughly a mile away. Crusty drove downwind like a bat out of hell while Dougie ground the spinnaker sheet and kept our A1 full. I began pumping the main like it was going out of style and dad stood watch as our eyes as we were starting to really light up the boat speed screen. Just before taking the shift, my brother Tommy exclaimed “11 knots- Beat that suckers!” A team got all riled up and began our shift with 13 knots! Take that Tommy! Wave trains were being ridden on consecutive and most of the time the main would stay in for a period after pumping. AC/DC lyrics began playing in my head and I was feeling super human at this point. I knew we were up there on the list and I wasn’t going to let any wave pass us on our sleigh ride to the finish.

The finish required two turning points before crossing the line. First would require a 20-degree to port turn, which would keep us inside of the A1 zone. The second would bring us into either A1 or code zero conditions, breeze pending. We decided to wake up B team from their one hour of rest, just to be safe. As soon as the sleepy four made their way on deck, the breeze dropped from 20 to 12. Everyone stayed on the rail and kept it down. Two gybes were required to clear land as our angle rose due to the dropping breeze. The Mackinac Bridge started to twinkle in the distance, and we were all pretty sure that we could see the lights of the Pink Pony glistening on island. As we got closer, a sea of red buoys made navigation a challenge. Doug popped down below for the remainder to guide us through the channel. We were looking for the four second flashing green for a long time, but never could find it. We used our relative position to keep sure depth and direction were OK. We spotted the lighthouse and got the anticipated excitement of radioing in our position. The spotlight lit up our big red chute like a Chinese lantern. We knew the finish was near but made sure we passed through it by what seemed like a half of a mile at the time. Chute down in the pitch black- I’m glad we didn’t have to do many douses! Official finish time: 3:16AM. Happy 60th birthday Dad! Nothing like being the first BYC boat to land the top of two podiums!"

* The J/22 European Championship was recently sailed on the Zierickzee in the Netherlands. One of the crew members sailing, Nadine, wrote a wonderful story about her experience:

"The long awaited main event this year was finally there, 28 boats registered, 5 coming from Germany and another 5 from France. Also a strong Dutch field including a big fraction from Drimmelen, as well as from around the Brassermeer and of course the Student teams were registered.

The weather prediction was relatively cold, but well sailable with a light breeze from west/southwest increasing and decreasing – making the competition together with the current an interesting tactical game…

Audrey was studying the tides for our Jabbadabbadoo, Clive added his experience from sailing days around the Solent, I was the logistic and admin responsible and Stan was actually just organising the complete Europeans.

Our goal was set to play in the first third, with the occasional visit to the top ten and maybe top five in this superb field of the best J22's of Europe. So after the nice but long sail through the Zierickzee canal under the huge turbulent bridge to the racing area the first start was a bit sobering – we started more or less second row. There is a difference between 15 boats and 28 at the start (which we almost forgot in the last two years).

We worked and found some speed in the upwind legs managing a 11th place to start the series. Not exactly where we wanted to be, but acceptable. The second race went similar, with a slight worse start and some misjudgments on the good side of the course, so that we ended up 14th seeing the leaders Banarama, Jazzy, Jamsession, Kantoorbutler and Gap only from the far.

We almost missed the preparation signal for the next, thinking we had a slight break and were head over heels falling in the starting sequence of the third race; apparently that was not too bad for us, because we found our start and the speed crossing back after a couple of minutes most of the field on port. Woohoo what a feeling rounding the upwind buoy as part of the top five. Now our new purple spinnaker lily felt like the Whomper we named it after! The tides where correctly predicted and we started understanding the wind – giving us the third place on the finish.

Feeling this high we hungered for more, recklessly giving everything in spot-on maneuvers and managed to cross the 4th race as first over the finish, what a feeling: Jabbadabbadoo!

The racing instructions allowed a fifth race and we were on a run, this race was dedicated to a fight on the last leg with Jazzy, millimeter trim work and tacks gave us the 2nd place only leaving us behind Banarama, who won deserved on incredible speed.

But back on shore we learned that the second place was scored as OCS, frustrated and devastated we saw the third place overall turning into a seventh. With sailing, being super happy and deeply frustrated are often just instances away… but some Champaign in the B&B and a dinner with all the class lifted the spirits (but not necessarily our tiredness

The second day promised stronger winds and we wanted to fight back. However, first it stayed by the wish of the fighting as our start was mediocre and we could not gain enough speed seeing 14 boats finishing in front of us. But we had seen the influence of the tide and the favorite side of the course giving us an advantage in the second race. There after a clear start we were fighting in front of the fleet for a place in the top 3. Indeed a second place it was – appreciated with a great Jabbadabbadoo at the finish line and reinforced confidence.

It was not completely our day – like an elevator on random course we ended the third race 25th. At least it was due to our own fault as we had to do a 360 after a bit too close encounter with the mark: The field by now was very close together, so we found out that it is costly to do some honour rounds.

The conclusion of the day was a fourth place showing that we can be where we want to be, just not consistently – or that someone was pressing our elevator button in the right direction again.

In the harbour as a very nice surprise was Stan’s family welcoming us and sharing the stijger-beer together with the complete J22 class: Having 28 boats during the competition made the beer an excellent social event giving the opportunity to laugh about today’s encounters, brag about wind and tides and in general just having an awesome time that a lot of other classes were jealous of.

It felt a bit a weird starting the third day with the last two races after such an elevator day. On one hand we knew we can, but on the other hand we exactly also knew too often we just don’t.

Anyway, we wanted to show that the good places where no accidents – so we trimmed in the hour before the race like mad, adjusted the rig (the wind prediction was medium wind, but in the hour before the race we had everything from wind still to strong gusts). And we found the right setting concluding a great wonderful European Championship with a 3rd and a 4th place ranking in the end result on place 7.

Despite some downs and the many ups in this regatta, we enjoyed the sailing in a big fleet (yes, even the starting!) and the chatting with so many nice people and crews. It was an event to be remembered, especially with beautiful sunshine during the last day's ceremony where we even got the prize for the winner of the day!

Congratulations to the teams that achieved a top ranking. It was also a pleasure to see so many new crews sailing with enthusiasm that reminded us of our own fight up the tail of the fleet. All boats realized that competing in a large fleet is more fun, but the fun of competing is just as intense and rewarding in the top as it is in the tail of the fleet. Thanks to all making this possible and a big thank you for Anna Schakel who provided some great pictures of the Europeans." Sailing photo credits- Anna Schakel For more J/22 JABBADABBADOO sailing information

* Sixteen PHRF Racers to Fit a Budget?! SAILING WORLD Magazine recently published a handy article on sixteen PHRF racers that you can own and campaign on a moderate budget. Written by the editorial crew of Bill Brockway, Kurt Hoehne, Tony Bessinger, they provide some insight on what might work for you, four of them are J/Boats (J/27, J/29, J/30, J/35)! Here's their commentary:

"The cheapest way to race is on someone else's boat. But, if you have dreams of thrusting the silver urn aloft at the awards banquet while praising your crew, you'll have to buy your own ride. The one thing standing in the way, you say, is the expense. But with handicap racing, you don't have to spring for a big-ticket racer. There are many competitive older designs you can buy and campaign for the cost of a new sport utility vehicle.

The most popular rating rule in the USA is the Performance Handicap Rating Fleet. So, if you're interested in buying a used boat, and want plenty of opportunity to race, it not only makes sense to buy one that fits your budget but performs well under PHRF. You want a boat that rates well in your region, but you don't want to sail a dog. A simple, but effective way of measuring a boat's abilities without sailing it is to determine its sail-area-to-displacement ratio. On most boats, the SA/D ratio usually works out to be between 14 and 30, with higher numbers representing lighter, faster boats. Cruiser/racers have ratios between 16 to 20, racer/cruisers have ratios greater than 20, and high-performance racers have ratios 24 and above. A SA/D calculator can be found at http://www.sailingusa.info/cal__sad_ratio.htm

Thanks to the Internet, searching for a PHRF winner is more fun than work, but to narrow down your search we've tapped our resources to narrow down your search to find 16 gems that shouldn't be overlooked. Please read more here on SAILING WORLD's website.

* J/160 AVATAR headed for the Caribbean, again! We LOVE these updates from our cruising J sailors that continue to criss-cross the Seven Seas. This one comes from Alan Fougere, sailing his beloved J/160 AVATAR.

Alan sent us an email update commenting on their passage south this winter, "In mid-December AVATAR completed her sixth transit to her winter Caribbean home, Grand Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI (seen above) from her home port in Quissett (Falmouth), MA. A crew of three, Captain Alan (e.g. me), Crew Pablo Brissett and Mark Conroy, covered the 1,500 nm trip in in her best time to date- 7 Days 5 Hours, averaging 8.7 kts, that's about 208 nm per day! Amazing passage it was! Rainbow at right far offshore was some of the amazing phenomenon we experienced on this fast offshore passage.

AVATAR will participate in the BVI Sailing Festival/Regatta again in 2013, where last year she won the Nanny Key Cup Cruising Class race around the Island of Virgin Gorda. Here are some photos for you to share with the J/Community at-large. Enjoy!"
Best, Alan Fougere/ AVATAR

* Bill & Judy Stellin recently had an interview about cruising on their J/42 in the Wall St Journal called "Retiring on the Open Sea". The Wall St Journal asked Bill to reply to dozens of questions that flooded into the WSJ's Editor desks. Here's the update:

Retiring on the Sea: Answering Readers' QuestionsAdvice about selecting a boat, ocean crossings, itineraries and safety

The article in our WSJ Online December retirement report about eight years spent sailing the Mediterranean— "Retiring to the Open Sea"— prompted many questions and comments from readers. We asked William Stellin, who wrote the story, to answer some of the most common queries.

WSJ- "What kind and make of boat did you use? Looking back, would you have picked a different boat?"

Bill- "In 1995-96, J/Boats of Newport, RI, came out with a new cruiser/racer model, the J/42. We bought hull No. 6 of this popular 42-foot sailboat and named it JAYWALKER. This was our fourth boat since beginning sailing in 1975.

Although long-distance cruising wasn't what we had in mind when we purchased JAYWALKER, it soon became apparent it had the ability to carry us easily and safely anywhere we wanted to go. Because the boat is light, it sails well in light winds, which means very little motoring is necessary.

People often ask (and argue) about what boat is best for cruising. Any boat that is strong, safe, fast, comfortable and easily handled by two people should fit the bill. One thing for sure, fast is fun—and important when trying to avoid bad weather."

The J Cruising Community J Cruisers continue their adventures around the world, below are a selection of most excellent "blogs" written by their prolific publishers. Some terribly amusing anecdotes and pearls of wisdom are contained in their blogs. Read some! You'll love it.

* The J/42 JARANA continues their epic voyage around the Pacific. Continue to read about Bill and Kathy Cuffel's big adventure cruising the South Pacific headed for New Zealand. Their blog is here: http://www.svjarana.blogspot.com/

* John and Mary Driver are sailing their J/130 SHAZAM for extended cruising in the Atlantic basin. At this time, John and Mary finished their double-handed crossing of the Atlantic, landing in Portugal on their J/130 Shazam after completion of their ARC Rally. Read the latest news at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/shazam/.

* Several J/160 owners are island hopping across the world's oceans, fulfilling life long dreams to cruise the Pacific islands, the Caribbean islands, the Indian Ocean and all points in between. Anyone for Cape Horn and penguins?? Read more about their adventures and escapades (like our J/109 GAIA, J/42s PAX and JAYWALKER and J/130 SHAZAM friends above).

- Bill and Susan Grun on the J/160 AVANTE are also sailing in the Pacific archipelago, read more about their great adventures on their blog (http://web.me.com/susangrun). Read about their latest adventures as they've gotten to New Zealand- "Avante Cruises the Pacific".

- Eric and Jenn on the J/160 MANDALAY also sailed the Pacific archipelago, read more on their blog at http://www.sailmandalay.com. Eric and Jenn are J/World alumni took MANDALAY up and down the West Coast (Mexico, CA), then to the South Pacific and New Zealand. MANDALAY is back in San Francisco now, and in the J/World fleet--she is available for skippered charters, private instruction, and corporate/executive groups.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

SB-King Harbor Race Preview
(Santa Barbara, CA)- This distance race spanning 81.0nm has been a tradition for Santa Barbara and King Harbor sailors for 41 years and for 2013 will have 69 keelboats entered; eighteen are J/Teams spread across one-design J/105s, PHRF and Sprit PHRF classes-- 26% of the entire fleet! The race is a California downwind classic most years, the real question will be how much wind will the fleet enjoy at either end of the race-- the start off Santa Barbara and the finish off King Harbor can be notoriously light. What's crazy about the race is that once the fleet rounds Anacapa Island offshore (part of the Channel Islands), the wind can often be funneling down the west side of the island chain from 20 to 30 kts!

In the nineteen boat Sprit PHRF Class is a fleet of the fast-reaching, offshore J sailing machines. Leading the J/fleet should be Carolyn Parks's gorgeous red J/145 RADIO FLYER. Breathing down their necks will be the J/125 TIMESHAVER sailed by Viggo Torbenson and the J/133 FORGIVENESS skippered by Joe Simpkins. Not far behind may be the J/111 JATO sailed by the team of Bill Webster and Mike Moorhead. One of the fast J/120s sailing is Gary Winton's SHENANIGANS and they will be accompanied by three J/109s- SHADOWFAX (Chris Mewes), PERSISTENCE (Bryce Benjamin) & LINSTAR (Len Bose). Also participating is Dan McGanty's J/105 AQUABELLA, Tom Cullen's new J/97 CHISPA and Brian Kerr's J/92 DOUBLE DOWN.

The J/105 One-Design class start has three boats participating, including ARMIDA (Tom Bollay), TWELVE BAR BLUES (Chuck Spear) and David Gorney. For more Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race sailing informationJ/30 North Americans Preview
(Barrington, RI)- The J/30 Class Association, Barrington Yacht Club, and J/30 Southern New England District (Fleet 13) are looking forward to host a near record fleet of twenty-three J/30s for the 2013 J/30 North American Championship July 25th-28th.

Narragansett Bay provides challenging race conditions and historic Barrington, Rhode Island is a wonderful and fun summer vacation destination for those J/30 sailing teams that are attending. There really is nothing quite like Narragansett Bay and the greater Newport-Providence area in the summertime. J/30 sailors will be able to enjoy this experience and local flavor with planned events such as the New England Lobster Boil on Saturday.

Answering that call are many of the top J/30s that have been maintained and lovingly restored to "AAA" bristol condition. With many new owners participating along with a number of veterans, it will come down to whom can divine the nuances of upper Narragansett Bay and its currents to determine the overall champion.

Familiar names like Bill Kneller's RHAPSODY, Chuck Stoddard's FALCON, Carl Sherter's FAT CITY, Randy Boyles's ROCKET J and Clare McMillan's WICKED that have been sailing in the Northeast and others will most assuredly enjoy a wonderful time sailing in Narragansett Bay. For more J/30 North Americans sailing informationBig J Fleet Sailing Youngstown Regatta
(Youngstown, NY)- It what may be the 40th, and last, Youngstown Level Regatta hosted by the Youngstown YC, sailors in the northeast have showed up 180 boats strong to celebrate a wonderful four decades of summer sailing tradition at the western end of Lake Ontario.

The J/24 one-design class has three boats sailing with a notable class leader diving into their midst-- Travis Odenbach's famous HONEY BADGER! Watch out, the badger is hungry for a win!

In handicap offshore racing world, there are IRC and PHRF classes. PHRF 1 class has the appearance of a 35 ft J class with a number of J/109s, J/111 and J/35s all participating. Bob Hesse's J/111 LAKE EFFECT should lead the fleet around the track, being chased by J/109s like Bob Eckersley's BLUE STREAK, Denys Jones' CARPE VENTUS, Murray Gainer's LIVELY and Ed Werner's MOCCASIN. Also giving them a run for the money will be J/35s like Andrew Kooiman's LOYALIST, Mark DePaul's REMARKABLE, Doug Mitchell's SASSAFRAS and Ken Bruce's ZONE.

Sailing PHRF 2 is the J/105 ALI-KAT skippered by Ed Berkhout and the J/100 SQUIRMY led by Joe O'Brien. PHRF 3 sees the appearance of two J/29s, including Mark Bowman's UNTAMED and Alex Miller's PAGAN. PHRF 4 has the classic J/30 CRUSADER being sailed by Dan Mather as well as Fred White's J/34 SOUND WAVE mixing it up in the fleet. PHRF 6 has the lone J/22 MO'MONEY being sailed by Aaron Snyder from Niagara Falls. PHRF Cruising 1 has Doug Clarke's J/35c ROGUE WAVE sailing in their class in what many might perceive as "a wolf in sheep's clothing" sailing amongst them! Finally, IRC 3 class has two J/27s including Mike Seitz's NORTHERN SEITZ and Andre Beese's MESSING ABOUT. For more Youngstown Level Regatta sailing informationJ/70 New England's/ Marblehead NOOD Preview
(Marblehead, MA)- This year's Sperry Topsider Marblehead NOOD regatta will also be featuring the inaugural J/70 New England Championship, hosted by the famous trio of yacht clubs in the harbor- Eastern YC, Boston YC and Corinthian YC. In addition to the J/70 class there will be fleets of J/105s and J/24s participating. Of the 150+ sailboats participating, by far the largest brand represented are J's with 42 boats (28% of the fleet) sailing in the waters off Marblehead. The wind forecast for Friday looks a bit "iffy" as a large Low pressure system offshore will be pumping Northeasterly winds into the harbor all day, with steadily increasing winds forecast to hit 20-30 kts by late evening Friday. The scene inside the harbor may be "touch & go" with huge waves rolling into the docks, making launch and recovery a bit delicate, one might say!

A fair number of recent J/70 regatta winners will be participating amongst the fleet of seventeen J/70s. They include the winners of St Pete NOOD, Charleston, Annapolis NOOD, Bacardi Newport, Cal Race Week and Long Beach Race Week-- Joel Ronning on CATAPULT and Bennet Greenwald on PERSEVERANCE! Tough hombres these guys are! Several locals will be quite competitive in their home waters, including Etchells 22 World Champion Jud Smith sailing with his wife Cindy, Dave Franzel on SPRING, Tyler Doyle and Ted Johnson on VITAMIN J. Notably, two women skipper/owners will be sailing, including Newporter Suzy Leech on JUNKANOO and Nancy Glover on WINTER WIND from Marblehead. Finally, the "long distance" award may have already been won by the German team on ROSAROTER PINGUIN led by Juergen Waldheim from Berlin!

As the largest J/class, the eighteen J/105s will have several local and visiting teams that sailed well in last year's NOOD as well as in the J/105 North Americans held at Eastern YC in the past. Amongst the Boston crowd that could be factors in the event include the entire top eight teams from last year's Marblehead NOOD! Those teams include past NOOD regatta winner Charlie Garrard on MERLIN, Matt Pike's GOT QI, Ric Dexter's CIRCE's CUP, Peter & Doug Morgan's STEELAWAY III, the BLOWN AWAY trio (Jon Samel, Mike Royer, Bob Mann), Fred deNapoli's ALLEGRO SIMPATICA, and Mark & Jolene Masur's TWO FEATHERS from Ft Worth Boat Club in Fort Worth, TX! Watch for significantly different results this year as the weather forecast may upset this pecking order!

Last year's J/24 class winner, Jubilee YC's John Denman on AIRODOODLE, will again be back hoping to repeat their win in the seven boat J/24 class. Another past top five finisher that will be sailing is Mike Taber's XINGU form Boston YC. For more J/70 New England's & Marblehead NOOD sailing informationJ/Sailing News

The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide

The end of July sees summer in full bloom on the sailing schedule in Europe and the Americas. With all of Europe and most of America on vacation, it's no wonder the events scheduled in late July/ August have often have the greatest attendance. And, the 2013 version seems to have a number of heat waves and rather sluggish fronts moving along that have produced riveting outcomes-- the "shock & awe" of watching water particles, dust and bugs slowly move by the leeward rail as crews stare down into the abyss below the surface.

On the European scene, recent events have seen good racing for those who finished and for those who didn't-- the pain of having to get home without having actually finished. While the recent RORC IRC Nationals off Portsmouth, England produced great racing on the first two days, it too was not immune to the vagaries of weather-- but what was HOT were the outcomes produced by a J/35, J/97 and J/92s! The following weekend, the RORC Cowes-Dinard-St Malo was a victim of the hot, wobbly Atlantic high and, again, some J/Teams (a J/122 and J/109) persevered and managed podium finishes despite record number of drop-outs. Meanwhile, over in Travemunde Week held in Travemunde, Germany, the J/70's sailing their Bundesliga didn't mind the warm, clear weather as Travemunde's beautiful bay produces a gorgeous sea-breeze of 10-15 kts from the ENE each day!

Hopping across the Great Pond, Edgartown YC off Cape Cod recently hosted their Edgartown Race Weekend that includes their famous Round Island- a 55nm affair that is highly popular. A number of J/Teams like a J/46, J/120, J/111, J/105, J/109 and J/42 all had silverware engraved with their names on them! Just northeast in Maine, the Rockland-Castine Race Weekend saw a J/105 enjoy have a lot of fun with the fleet. Down in the southern Chesapeake, Fishing Bay YC hosted their version of the Leukemia Cup for PHRF handicap (with a a J/35 and J/105 sailing) while raising a lot of money for a good cause. Out in the Great Lakes, the Bayview Mackinac Race was fortunate to have a fairly fast, easy race with J/Teams dominating a number of classes and taking home some silverware, including a J/29, J/35, J/105, J/42, J/111, J/120s, J/33, J/44 and J/145-- an amazing performance for any brand! Out West, lots was happening. The Transpac Race concluded, one of the slower on record, with J/125s again showing they can fly offshore. The "adult summer camp", a.k.a. Whidbey Island Race Week, was a fun affair with sun and wind! How shocking for the northwest! WIRW had a strong J/105 class and a number of J's placed top five in their respective PHRF divisions. In San Francisco Bay, while the AC72 catamarans were flying around out-of-control tossing their sails into the waters, the J/105s sailed an awesome Sausalito Invitational with winds up to 50 kts! Cool stuff, eh? Finally, down in the beautiful California Riviera known as Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara YC again hosted a fun Fiesta Cup Regatta with great sailing and excellent social activities in the evenings.

Read on! The J/Community and Cruising section below has many entertaining stories and news about J/Sailors as well as cruising blogs about those who continue to enjoy the Caribbean and the South Pacific, staying warm while others are trying to stay warm up north. Check them out! More importantly, if you have more J/Regatta News, please email it orupload onto our J/Boats Facebook page! Below are the summaries.

For additional J/Regatta and Event dates in your region, please refer to the on-line J/Sailing Calendar.J/Teams Dominate Bayview Mackinac RaceJ/120s Top Cove Island Race, J/29 Doublehanded Champ
(Port Huron, MI)- The Bayview Mackinac Race, hosted by Bayview YC, had a strong field of 239 boats that sailed in Doublehanded, PHRF and ORR handicap divisions. The fleet was split between the two courses on offer to the sailors, with a small fleet of boats sailing the longer "Cove Island course" (which takes teams up onto the Canadian side of Lake Huron up north near a buoy to the entrance of the North Channel in Ontario, then head nearly due WNW to Mackinac Island for the finish) and the balance of boats sailed the so-called "Shore Course" (a direct shot, mostly up the eastern Michigan shoreline directly to Mackinac). The popularity of the Shore Course has risen dramatically in recent years at it's primarily a reaching course, so teams get to Mackinac Island faster and happier (for the most part!). The Cove Island course takes teams due north and often when turning left to head for the island, it turns into a fairly rough beat to windward (not good for Mom and the kids).

This year's race was a relatively fast one with teams starting in good breeze on Saturday and many finishing late Sunday and early Monday morning. Taking the overall crown in the Division I Cove Island Course were two J/120s, Tom Lewin's SLEDGE HAMMER in 1st followed by classmate Bill Bresser in FLYIN IRISH in second, both finishing just after 3am Monday morning. The third J/120, Dennis Dettmer's PERVERSION took 9th overall. Sneaking in between these offshore cruiser-racers was the J/111 KASHMIR sailed by Tom Roop, taking 7th overall. J/120s as a whole did well in this race, taking seven of the top 17 places overall. Add in the top J/111's and results show J/Teams took nine of the top 20 places (not bad, to have nearly 50% of the top 20!).

Looking at the Shore Course overall, the J classics sailed well with two J/35s finishing 6th (MR BILL's WILD RIDE) and 8th (MAJOR DETAIL), the J/145 VORTICES in 7th and the J/44 SAGITTA taking 10th-- like their Cove Island colleagues, also a great showing for J/Teams taking 4 of the top 10 overall.

In the Doublehanded Division on the Shore Course, the J/29 PATRIOT skippered by Lyndon Lattie took first overall followed by the J/111 NO SURPRISE sailed by Dave Irish in third place. A fantastic performance for both boats.

Sailing Cruising A Division on the Shore Course was the J/42 DOS MAS sailed by Gary Gonzalez, taking both 3rd in class as well as 3rd overall! Yet another feather in the cap for this cruising offshore classic!

The highly competitive fleet of eight Great Lakes J/120s proved beyond any reasonable doubt they know this Bayview Mac race quite well! Behind the top three boats (SLEDGE HAMMER, FLYIN IRISH, PERVERSION) the balance of the class top five included Bob Kirkman's HOT TICKET in 4th and the team of Ed Vermet and John Hughes's NAUTI BOYS in 5th. Good show for this mostly Detroit, Michigan crowd-- the exception, of course, going to "long distance award" travelers SLEDGE HAMMER from Buffalo, New York!

The J/105's saw a "two-peat" take place in their midst, with past race winner PTERODACTYL skippered by Mary Symonds finishing late Sunday night to win by only two minutes! Chasing them hard the entire race was GOOD LOOKIN sailed by Dean and Lana Walsh. Just seven minutes back from them in third position was SNAKE OIL skippered by Don Harthorn. The rest of the top five include WINDSHADOW sailed by Jim Murphy in 4th and RAMPAGE led by Matt Haglund in 5th. Amazingly, the J/105s must have had the "best performing boat in class" award, as the spread for the top five was only 22 minutes!! And, for the entire class, just 45 minutes! Fun, close racing for all.

The J/35's in the Great Lakes had nine very competitive teams sailing in the Level 35 Class and without question, many of them had the potential to win class as well as overall in the Shore Course race. In the end, the J/35s swept the top four positions, with past Bayview-Mac champion MR BILL's WILD RIDE sailed by Bill Wildner taking the crown again! Second was MAJOR DETAIL skippered by Bill Vogan just eight minutes behind. Third was TIME MACHINE sailed by Robert Gordenker and fourth was FALCON sailed by the trio of Bayer/ Bayer/ Barbes.

The Cove Island course PHRF C class saw the two J/111s simply dominate their competitors. Leading the fleet home was past Chicago-Mac winner KASHMIR sailed by Tom Roop, winning by over 22 minutes corrected. Second home was Tim Clayson's UNPLUGGED, 41 minutes clear of the boat that took third!

The Shore Course PHRF D class had a few offshore greyhounds in the crowd. Sailing well to take 2nd position was Chris Saxton's J/145 VORTICES, showing again that their excellent sailing in the Chicago-Mac Race two weeks earlier was no fluke-- a solid offshore team they are!

The Shore Course PHRF E class saw the J/44 SAGITTA sailed by past commodores Jon Somes and Larry Oswald take a well-deserved 2nd overall, finishing as first boat in class on elapsed and second on corrected time.

First in the Shore Course PHRF F Class was the J/33 SHENANIGAN sailed by the team of Dick & Dan Synowiec.

The Shore Course PHRF G class had the J/100 BLUE JAY skippered by John McVeety taking 10th in class and the J/92 KOHATSU sailed by John Stromberg was 12th. Sailing photo credits- Martin @ ELEMENTS For more Bayview Mackinac Island sailing informationJ/97 & J/35 Win Class In RORC IRC Nationals
(Portsmouth, England)- Yachts from Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, South Africa and the United Kingdom gathered in the Solent for the twelfth edition of the RORC IRC National Championship. Split into five IRC classes, the J/Teams were participating in three of them- IRC2, IRC3, and IRC4- and they all either won or had top five finishes!

The Royal Ocean Racing Club was determined to open the IRC National Championship in style and three excellent races on challenging windward-leeward courses was the result offshore of Portsmouth. With virtually no wind forecast for the central Solent, as well as tidal and depth issues, the Race Committee decided to take the fleet east in search of a decent breeze and the result was a magnificent day on the water.

In IRC Three James Chalmers' J/35 BENGAL MAGIC was fast out of the blocks and after three races led their class by one point. Reigning RORC IRC National Champion, the JPK 10.10, Strait Dealer, scored one race win today to claim third place. That was quite an auspicious start for the classic J/35 against the latest IRC machines off top European designer's drawing boards!

The top performer of the day was Nick and Adam Munday's J/97 INDULJENCE, scoring three straight wins in IRC Four. In light airs getting a good start and into clear air was the telling factor and INDULJENCE started every race with great anticipation. Richard Sparrow's J/92 WHO'S TO NO was second.

For the second day of sailing the RORC P.R.O chose Hayling Shoal as the combat zone. With five races now completed, battle lines were emerging for the three classes J's were racing. Day Two was another light winds affair with the 54 strong RORC fleet heading once again to the best sailing grounds available. With the wind speed barely reaching 10 knots, starts were important and getting into clear air gave a distinct advantage. However, some yachts were over-eager with several general recalls and a number of boats were called over the line on individual recalls. Only two of the scheduled three races were sailed, however the race management team were roundly applauded for getting in two good races with difficult weather conditions.

In IRC Two, Cornel Riklin's JITTERBUG had posted three finishes in the top five (3-4-4) but had an 8th in race 5 to hurt their chances for the podium. Her sistership, Andrew Christie's J/111 ICARUS, sailed like her namesake, not melting her wings as she streaked to the front of the fleet, posting a bullet to her scoreline.

In IRC Three J/35 BENGAL MAGIC's fantastic championship efforts continued. James Chalmers and his crew from Weymouth scored a win and a second place today to lead the class and had the lowest net points score overall for the entire fleet. "We have put in a lot of preparation for this event," commented Chalmers, skipper of Bengal Magic, and we are proud to say we are a Weymouth boat and would love to take the silverware back to Dorset but we will have to see how things go tomorrow."

Nick and Adam Munday's J/97 INDULJENCE had a perfect scoreline in the morning but the Hamble based crew were over the line at the start of the first race of the day and had to go back and the error cost them dearly. However, INDULJENCE were still leading the class, but discarding an eighth place meant one more slip up would see them move down the leaderboard. Tied on points for second place was Richard Sparrow's J/97 WHO'S TO NO. "My son Adam put in a lot of hard work getting Induljence race prepped and we have all been sailing through the cold winter months to enjoy this weekend's beautiful sunny weather," commented Nick Adams. "We are delighted to be doing so well and it really is all down to preparation but we still have one more day to go."

For the final day of racing on Sunday, the crews faced a fairly grim forecast-- next to no or little wind was on the cards and it would be difficult for the RORC committee to get the ball rolling and have a "fair" race for all. As it happened, all classes got away off Gillkicker Point, but a substantial shift in the light breeze was too much to provide fair racing and the race was abandoned shortly after the start.

Consequently, Cornell Riklin's J/111 JITTERBUG snatched a fourth place in IRC2 having sailed a solid series in the middle three races. Chalmers J/35 BENGAL MAGIC took IRC honors. "It has come as a complete surprise to win our class!" commented an ecstatic Chalmers. "We have been racing against some well sailed boats but now and again everything clicks together and that has been the case this weekend. We are absolutely thrilled to be national champions. I have just spent a fortune with Spinlock, so I am delighted to hear that we will be receiving some prizes from them, as well!"

National Champion in IRC Four was awarded to Nick and Adam Munday racing J/97 INDULJENCE who won three of the five races sailed. Richard Sparrow's J/92 WHO'S TO NO took second place and Charles Ivill's J/97 JIGGERY POKERY took fifth in class. Thanks for contribution from RORC/ Louay Habib. For more RORC IRC Nationals Championship sailing informationJ/Teams Sail Light Transpac
(Honolulu, Hawaii)- This year's Pacific offshore 2,225nm classic was not one of your typical Transpac's. While the finish line off Diamond Head Light and the red bell often produce spectacular photos with boats flying down waves in massive plumes of spray under spinnakers in 20-30 kts of breeze in 10-15 foot swells, the rest of the race leading up to this final blast was anything but fast. With the Pacific High meandering all over the place, expanding, retreating and moving around like a drunken sailor on high heels, the teams knew they were in for a tough race.

The race did start out on a high note, with the small boats leaving Monday on a gorgeous, sunny, windy day. All boats fetched Catalina Island on two tacks, left it to port and within hours many were sporting spinnakers flying towards Hawaii into stronger, more favorable tradewinds (at least that was the plan). The second starting group on Thursday had to contend with a freakish Low pressure system that produced ESE winds, with boats taking off on port tack from the starting line with little wind and spinnakers and gybing towards Catalina. What? Didn't Neptune get the memo? The brochure says the fleet is supposed to start on starboard, set chutes, blow down the Molokai Channel, get "lei'd" and celebrate arrival with a massive punchy umbrella drink! It was not to be. The second fleet starters faired badly in the overall standings as a result of this freak show. The third and final fleet of turbo's and sleds took off Saturday in more typical conditions-- sunny with a moderate breeze from the NNW, enabling most of the fleet to clear Catalina Island during daylight hours after a tack or two.

Starting in the second start, Tim Fuller's J/125 RESOLUTE still sailed a helluva race, taking 3rd in class and 19th overall. The J/125 WEST COAST WARRIOR sailed by Greg Constable was doing well until they hit something in the middle of the Pacific and gouged their keel badly, as well as affecting their rudder. Many boats reported damages or collisions with lots of trees and one boat even had to avoid a partially sunken refrigerator, all largely a result of the tsunami that hit Japan over a year ago. The J/105 CREATIVE team skippered by Ed Sanford from San Diego, class winners in last year's Pacific Cup, have had a rough go of it this year in the lighter airs.

Meanwhile, of note was that J/WORLD SAILING SCHOOL's 50 footer HULA GIRL again sailed the Transpac and managed a 6th in class. Led by Wayne Zittel and two coaches plus six J/WORLD students as crew, the old GIRL sailed admirably in the difficult conditions. Most of the Transpac participants have learned to sail on J/Boats and a few own J/Boats - at least 2 J/105s in this year's crew! Wayne and the J/WORLD coaches have countless days on the water teaching on J/80s, J/105s, J/120s, J/70s, J/111s and more! Sailing photo credits- Sharon Green/ UltimateSailing.com/ Transpac YC For more TransPac Race sailing informationJ/105 Dominates Whidbey Island WeekJ/29 SLICK Takes PHRF 4
(Whidbey Island, WA)- Seventy-one teams competed in the 31st annual Whidbey Island Race Week in ten one design and PHRF fleets. Racing was conducted out of Oak Harbor, WA from July 15-19. Renowned for good, fun racing the full week’s vacation of seafood, whale watching, live music, Growler fly-bys and glorious sunsets is often referred to as an "adult summer camp". Amazingly, Orca killer whales welcomed the fleet on their first morning while the parade of boats exited the harbor!

Managing ten classes during the week, four of them one-design, the CYC-Seattle race committee ran two RC boats, multiple runabouts, and shot off 120 starts in 8-16 knot winds. In fact, all five days had great sailing conditions with plenty of sunshine and nice wind.

In the J/105 Class, Jerry Diercks’ DELIRIUM won Boat of the Week with 11 straight bullets and solid crew work. Second in class was Jim Geros's LAST TANGO with a lot of seconds and third in class was Matt Gardner-Brown's DULCINEA.

In the PHRF handicap classes, the top performer was the Mayfield/Nelson duo winning PHRF 4 counting all 1sts and 2nds in their scoreline, an impressive performance against well-sailed teams. The J/122 ANAM CARA sailed by Tom Kelly managed 4th in PHRF 1 class.

The four J/35s sailing PHRF 3 had a good series with Brian White's GRACE E taking third and Ernie Chatham's JABIRU taking 4th in class. Tom Kerr's J/33 CORVO started off the series slowly and wound up with a bunch of 2nds to take 4th in class.

Sailing PHRF 7 was Bill McKinnon's J/80 SKYE ROCKET, posting consistent top five scores to take 4th in their class. Finally, the classic J/24 LUCKY JIM skippered by Jim McAlpine managed to win a few races and take fifth in PHRF 9 class. Sailing photo credits- Jan Pix For Whidbey Island Race Week sailing informationJ/Teams Score In RORC Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race
(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- This year's Cowes-Dinard-St Malo race had over 170 yachts entered from six different nations will race across the English Channel to the famous walled port city of St Malo in Brittany, France. The 170-mile race pre-dates the Royal Ocean Racing Club by almost 20 years, with the overall winner taking the impressive gold plated King Edward VII Cup, presented by the British Monarch to the Club Nautique de la Rance at Dinard in 1906.The Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is the ninth race of the 13 race series for the RORC Season's Points Championship.

The race to St. Malo from Cowes is one of the oldest yacht races in the world and has always been a popular event with competitors racing with the Royal Ocean Racing Club. The timing of the race coincides with the celebration of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, a symbol of the uprising of the modern French nation. Bastille Day is one of the biggest celebrations throughout France and the fortress village of St Malo will be a hive of festivities and cultural celebrations culminating in an impressive firework display.

However, despite the fact that it can be a fast reaching race for many, this edition may very well go down into the history books as one of the toughest, slowest and lightest on record for a vast majority of the fleet. What appears to be a record number of DNF's were scored for the fleet, with approximately 25% of the fleet actually finishing the race while all others simply dropped out. "It was a race of super concentration," commented a competitor. "We were so pleased with the crew, we kedged near the start and in the Channel in very deep water but we were determined to finish, at no time did we even talk about giving up." Kedging to win?! Hmmm, didn't see where that was permissible under the ISAF regs, but then again, it is an old race with perhaps old rules!

Surviving were a number of J crews that managed to get across "La Manche" and grab some silverware, hopefully with bowls to throw in a few rum punches to calm the frazzled nerves! In IRC 2 Class, Francois Lognone's J/122 NUTMEG IV was second boat to cross the line and took third on corrected time. Meanwhile, her sistership sailed by Rob Craigie- the J/122 J-BELLINO- took fifth in IRC 2 Class and seventh in IRC Double class. Also sailing quite well in this challenging race was Robin Taunt's J/109 JIBE (skippered by Fergus Roper), scoring a second in IRC 3 Class. For more RORC Cowes-St Malo Race sailing informationJ/70's Sail Travemunde WeekGreat Racing in Bundesliga Between German Clubs
(Travemunde, Germany)- The J/70 Bundesliga yacht club participants were looking forward to sailing on Travemunde's famous bay on the Baltic Sea; renown for the sea-breeze that often fills in the afternoon at 10-15 kts from the northeasterly quadrants- often oscillating from 40 to 75 degrees.

The second regatta of the Bundesliga took place in front of Lübeck, sailing in a "stadium-style" racing right along the Travemunde waterfront. The regatta organizers did a fabulous job of running thirty races for three flights over the two days for the eighteen teams that were competing. The weather Gods cooperated, offering up sunny days with nice sea-breezes every afternoon-- that's what the chamber of commerce promised, right!?

Demonstrating how close the competition was for all the teams, the top three was determined on a three-way tie-breaker with 25 pts total each. Winning the regatta with most firsts was the Bayerischer YC, second was the North German Regatta Association and third was YC Berlin Grunau.

"The leading clubs are all sailing on the same level. Everybody has won races and sometimes have also landed back in the field," says Walter Roth sailing with Yacht Club Berlin Grunau. And, he adds that "having short, fast consecutive races means bad ones are quickly forgotten! The BYC team with skipper Christian Schäfer and crew John Kaske, Philip Hibler and Walter Roth have been improving constantly. Their victory in Travemünde means we now move into second place in the overall Bundesliga series!"

The YC Berlin Grunau continues to lead the Bundesliga series as a result of their third place finish in Travemunde. "For us, everything went as planned. We defended our championship lead and want to continue our good performance in the next regatta in Hamburg," said the team manager of YCBG.

The second place team in Travemünde, the North German Regatta Association, underlined their ambitions in the Bundesliga. "We're used to match race sailing, but we quickly adapt to these exciting new boats- the J/70s. This has definitely helped us on the first day of racing," explains Florian Weser. He generally match races with his teammates Klaas Höpcke and Niklas Meyerinck. "The NRV team is now ranked third in the Bundesliga series and we intend to get better!" added helmsman Johannes Polgar.

As one of the primary sponsors of the Bundesliga series sailed on J/70s, SAP's Sail-TV has been providing both locally live TV broadcasts as well as live internet broadcasts on-line. The popularity of the event not only throughout Germany, but across Europe, has been increasing dramatically! Watch for other versions of this J/70 circuit in other European countries next year! Sailing Photo credits- Lars Wehrmann For more J/70 Bundesliga sailing information For more Travemunde Woche sailing informationUllman Wins Fiesta Cup J/70sGoebel's SANITY Takes J/105 Cliffhanger
(Santa Barbara, CA)- As they have for the past six years, Santa Barbara YC's gracious team of volunteers pulled out the red carpet for all crews sailing their famous Fiesta Cup Regatta. With PRO Brad Schaupeter coordinating on-water activities and Regatta Chair-woman Jane Watkins looking after the ever so popular on-shore festivities, the host's promise of a fun regatta with great sailing exceeded most sailors expectations.

The sailing was about as challenging as many of the locals have seen for the event. Saturday's forecast was for light winds from the S-SW. However, with the "June gloom" fog dissipating early, cool Pacific waters in the low 60s, and razor-clear blue skies, the classic WSW winds the area is renowned for settled in- starting in the 195-210 degree range early afternoon and swinging as far as 250-270 degrees in late afternoon. Perhaps critically for many, the amount of loose kelp and weed in the water was enough to create a lot of headaches for many crews trying to shed that speed-destroying stuff.

For the J/70 class, it was a weather/ wind scenario often seen by local champion Dave Ullman, who managed to rattle off a 1-2-3 to take the early lead. Just behind them was Craig Tallman's team on JAYA with a 5-1-2 and the duo of Tom Jenkins & Eric Kownacki on DFZ in third with a 4-5-1.

In the J/105s, the combination of starting issues, weed/kelp drama and basic boat-handling seemed to be afflicting many in the fleet. After the smoke cleared, leading the first day was local hero Larry & Becky Harteck sailing the famous REPEAT OFFENDER, followed by San Diego's Rick Goebel on SANITY in second and Steve Howell's BLINK! in third position overall.

Sunday dawned with a completely different scenario for the fleets as there was the remnants of an offshore hurricane coming up the coast of Mexico that weakened dramatically into a mushy Low pressure system, but still spun high-level clouds and gradient winds into the region from the ESE quadrants. The winds were shifting erratically from 150 to 180 degrees with significant wind streaks ranging from 4 to 8 kts; plus toss in a few weed/ kelp "pods" that were sometimes impassable, meant only one thing for the J/70 and J/105 fleets-- chaos.

Despite the crazy conditions, Dave Ullmans' J/70 team hung on for the class win. And, previous day's second place team also managed to do the same- Jenkins/ Kownacki on DFZ- to secure second place with a strong 2-1 showing in the last two races. Just behind them was a different story with Kenny Kieding's SMOKE & MIRRORS sailing a brilliant first race to win and taking a 4th in the second race of the day to take the third position on the podium by just one point.

The drama for the lead in the J/105 class seemingly changed leg by leg as the enormous windshifts and streaks rolled through the fleet upwind and downwind. In the end, Rick Goebel's SANITY avoided too many pitfalls to snag 2nd in the last race to secure the Fiesta Cup Champion Trophy by two points. On the comeback trail was Alex Bernal & Tedd White's team on FREE ENTERPRISE, arising like a Phoenix from the ashes to grab two bullets in a row to take second overall. Having to overcome a number of obstacles on the last day was Harteck's REPEAT OFFENDER, holding on to take third for the regatta just one point in front of Howell's BLINK!

As many have come to appreciate over the past few years, the Fiesta Party on Saturday night delivered on great music (good band!) and plenty of tasty Tex/Mex tidbits to satisfy the hungriest of sailors. Plus, having plenty of free beverages supplied by regatta sponsors Fess Parker's Winery and Vineyard and Cerveza Pacifico added to the overall camaraderie on the beach in front of the yacht club. Sailing photo credits- Jane Watkins/ Taggart Lee For more Santa Barbara YC Fiesta Cup sailing informationJ/105 Wins Edgartown Week & Round IsJ/111 Takes Class in Round Island
(Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard) – After notching only eight knots of breeze on opening day (Thursday, July 18), Edgartown Yacht Club’s three-day Race Week cranked into high gear for a subsequent two days of action, loading up 25 teams with 20 knots of breeze for a second day of the event’s Big Boat Buoy Races and giving 62 teams an exhilarating run for their money in 25 knots plus during the 54.7 nautical mile ‘Round-the-Island Race, which was scored separately and comprised the final day of racing (Saturday, July 20).

Due to enormous amount of interest in extending the weekend of sailing, the Edgartown Yacht Club added an extra day to its 2013 Big Boat Buoy Races (BBBR). As a result, the event ran from Wednesday through Sunday (July 17-21) for IRC, PHRF, Double Handed, Cruising and Classic sailboats. After two days of the Big Boat Buoy Races on Thursday and Friday, Mount Gay also sponsored a Friday night “jump-up” celebration before the Round the Island Race on Saturday.

“As more big boats came to Edgartown for the Round the Island Race, the more their crews wanted to enjoy Martha’s Vineyard, and take home more silver,” said Mr Brooks. “The response to our efforts has been electric.“ First held in the summer of 1938, the Edgartown Yacht Club’s Round the Island Race was inspired by a similar race around the Isle of Wight that has been held in Cowes, England every year since 1931. Covering 54.7 miles, it passes over Nantucket Sound, the Atlantic Ocean and Vineyard Sound and by seven lighthouses as it circumnavigates, clockwise, the 100 square miles that make up Martha’s Vineyard.

The distance around Martha’s Vineyard is just a few miles longer than around the Isle of Wight, with similar views of cliffs and headlands, villages and open water. Tidal currents and wind effects are important, and one team that was hoping to defend its title as master of both in the PHRF Spinnaker class was be Richard Egan’s (Osterville, Mass.) aboard his J/46 WINGS, which won its division overall last year.

“The Round-the-Island Race has been a tradition for my family since the ‘70s,” said Egan, whose father used to race and whose wife, two sons, two brothers (with their sons in tow) and a nephew will sail as part of his 11-14 person crew this year. “We like how it is located chronologically in the middle of the summer sailing schedule.” Nevertheless, says Egan, it was hard for the working professionals on his crew to get time off from their jobs for the Big Boat Buoy Races, so he decided to team up with his 19-year-old son, Richard Egan III, to take a shot at the first-ever competition for Double-Handed (skipper and one mate) crews. “We’ll try things for the first time, and hopefully in the end it won’t kill us. We haven’t done any double-handed sailing with the boat, but this make of boat has been used all over the place for it, so it clearly can be done.” Those were somewhat prophetic words, as they happened to manage quite well and take the Double-handed crown for the Big Boat Racing!

Sailing the Round Island PHRF 2 Class was the J/120 APRES sailed by Stephen Besse from Vineyard Haven, taking a close second after a closely fought race with Doug Curtiss's J/111 WICKED 2.0. Here's the report from Mr Curtiss on their adventures racing around the island on their J/111:

"Not only did we secure a first place in PHRF A Class by three minutes corrected in this six hour race, but went toe to toe with the 1D35 for most of the day. Did I mention some great sailing with gust to 30, and top speed of 18.6 Knots for Wicked 2.0?

The day started well with a spinnaker start and run to the leeward mark of Cape Pogue. Making the turn South for the reach down the Muskeget Channel between Chappy and Nantucket, we were 2 boat lengths behind the 1D 35. Wind was a steady 18 to 22.

We separated for most of the reach, but rounding the Sea Buoy and turning to the West, the J/120 APRES came out of nowhere to take the lead. We were 3 boat lengths behind the 1D 35. Everyone settled onto the rail for the 2 1/2 hours to the can off Squibnocket. Slowly, ever so slowly, we reeled in the 1D 35. Heading into a Southwest ocean swell, with freshening breeze, Ted and then Gary ground em down. Everyone on the rail was hiking like we were in a buoy race with one last mile to the windward mark-- only this was 19 miles of ocean! No more than 3 boat lengths had separated us for the fetch down the whole South Shore. When we rounded the Squibby can, we were 20 feet ahead. We had gained approximately 120 feet in the last 19 miles against our sparring partner.

Both bore away to the Sea Buoy at Devil's Bridge, Gay Head. Wind is gusting to 25 with big swells on a reach. 1D 35 used their maneuverability and every trick in their bag to try and get by Wicked 2.0. Could not pass to windward, so set up on a wave and try to surf by to leeward-- no dice. Rounding the buoy at Gay Head, still less than a boat length separation. But we had shortened the course by 25 miles on the 1D 35.

And we needed every second of that handicap, as the 1D 35 took advantage of their downwind speed and took off on the spinnaker run down Vineyard Sound toward the finish line. Wind was now gusting over 30 with a steady 22 to 26 on the wind gauges. Both boats playing the adverse tides through Lucas Shoals and Middle Ground.....jibing into the beach to get out of the current and then jibing back out into Vineyard Sound. A great real estate tour of the north shore of Martha's Vineyard, but no one was looking in this breeze. The speedo topped out at 18.6 knots!!!

The J/120 fell back. The 1D35 pulled far ahead with their square top main and big kite. Then disaster struck the 1D35-- broaching badly with a blown chute, followed by two more knockdowns.

Rounding the can at West Choppy, we killed the kite for the reach to the finish. Past Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs, we saw the most wind of the day, making 13 and 14 knots on a close reach with full main and number 3 jib.

Wicked 2.0 crossed the finish with corrected time about 3 min ahead of the J/120 and 7 min ahead of the 1D35 after more than 6 hours of memorable racing.

Special thanks to all those on the delivery home after the turn and burn at MVY. Also to all who helped provision and prep the boat. And a special nod to those hiking on the rail who got us by the 1D 35 on the South Side. Their driver told me at the awards ceremony, he wished his crew knew how to hike like the Wickeds."

Sailing in Class 3 PHRF in the BBBR and in Class 4 in the Round Island was the J/105 DARK'N'STORMY sailed by Ned Joyce from Buzzards Bay YC. “In the light air, after the first day, we were in last place overall,” said Ned Joyce (Cataumet, Mass.), who won PHRF B class in the Big Boat Buoy Races with his J105 Dark ‘n Stormy, “but in the heavy air we turned in three first-place finishes to win. That’s what we are more used to having on Buzzard’s Bay where we usually sail.” Joyce went on to win his class in the ‘Round-the-Island Race (Sophie dismasted in the ‘Round-the-Island Race but limped home safely), making him one of only two racers to claim victory in both of the weekend’s double-header events.

Rounding out the weekend's performance in the BBBR were a 2nd in Class 2 by the J/109 GUT FEELING sailed by Ted Herlihy and 4th in class by the J/120 APRES (Stephen Besse). As mentioned, there was a well-deserved first in class by Dick Egan's J/46 WINGS in the Double-handed class.

In the Round Island Race, Class 3 saw the J/44 BALLYHOO (Wesley McMichael) take third and the J/42 PANASEA (Kent Nicholas) take 4th. Behind DARK'N'STORMY in Class 4 were another J/105- LYRIC sailed by Pete Lebish in third. Sixth in class was Dick Egan's J/46 WINGS and seventh was the J/109 HAFA AIDA skippered by Eliot Shanabrook of Marblehead YC. Sailing a very nice race in Class 5 was the J/35c RIVA (Steve Dahill) taking a third overall. Finally, in Class 8 PHRF Double-handed was the J/42 STARLIGHT sailed by Jil Westcott. Sailing photo credits- Michael Berwind For more Edgartown YC Race Week and Round Island sailing informationARBITRAGE Wins Sausalito J/105 Invite
(Sausalito, CA)- This past weekend the San Francisco J/105 fleet was treated to its own race course on the Berkeley Circle courtesy of Sausalito YC. SYC has been running the event for J/105s-only for years between Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. However, with all the America's Cup hoopla going on, SYC wisely moved the event to the Berkeley Circle to avoid having J/105s sliced in half by 50 kt 72-foot AC catamarans careening out of control.

On Saturday, the winds started at 15 kt, quickly grew to a consistent 30-32 kts, and even hit 50 kts after racing was over and folks were motoring home in their boats across San Francisco Bay! Scooter Simmons’ BLACKHAWK dominated the first day of racing with a 4th and two bullets, while Bruce Stone and the team on ARBITRAGE were just three points behind with a 2-4-3. Jeff Littfin's MOJO and Phil Laby's GODOT were tied for third a couple more points back, so with such a closely bunched crowd, the regatta was anyone’s to win going into Sunday.

As has often been the case with the SF J/105s, whatever happened on Saturday would have little bearing on the outcomes for Sunday to determine the final winners. ARBITRAGE was a bit eager early in the morning (perhaps due to the influence of Stone's custom-made roasted coffee beans) and was called over early in the first race. Nevertheless, Stone's team clawed their way back for a hard-earned second. In the last race, the ARBITRAGE team turned in another consistent race, finishing third, to claim the top spot on the podium despite no bullets. Littfin's MOJO took second and Laby's GODOT third. Past regatta winner RISK (Jason Woodley & Scott Whitney) was just off the pace in this event but managed a bullet in the last race to secure 4th, while early regatta leader Simmon's BLACKHAWK slid down to fifth place; much of that could be attributed to that fact they sailed a borrowed boat on Sunday after their own boat blew-up the jib roller due to Saturday's heavy winds.

According to Stone, “Steering was quite difficult both days, and big gains were made switching gears. Nicole Breault, our main trimmer and tactician, worked really hard to keep us moving from normal trim into footing mode to punch through the significant chop and get into the next shift. Since we cross sheet, she had the jib at hand and was able to work both main and jib all the way up the race course. We feel this made a huge difference in our performance.” Sailing Photo credits- Rolex/ Daniel Forster. For more Sausalito YC J/105 Invite sailing informationJ/105 Rockland-Castine Regatta Champion
(Castine, ME)- Two great days of racing took place this past weekend at the 3rd Annual Rockland Castine Regatta hosted by Rockland Yacht Club. In all 32 boats made it to the line for the start on both days. There were two cruising classes, three racing classes, a shorthanded division, and a multihull division each sailing a 20 mile course, to and from, Rockland and Castine Harbors.

Day one was the sleigh ride to Castine with a 10 to 20 knot WSW breeze that was reasonably consistent throughout the race. KEEMAH, the J/105 owned by Don Logan, in racing class two was the second boat to finish. It was not the day for the big boats as they were never able to catch all the way up to most of the smaller boats. Day 2 would be another story completely.

Day two started off with a whimper and finished off with a bang. The weather intelligence provided the race committee with a forecast for some wind although it didn't look like it just after the starting sequence had begun. A nice 5 knot northerly a filled just outside Castine harbor and the race committee anxiously started the race on time. However, that wind proved to be a fluke and very light air commenced for the rest of the starting sequence. Luckily a nice 1 knot+ out-going current kept most of the boats moving towards the goal of Rockland harbor while the whole fleet waited for a southwesterly wind to fill for a great upwind leg back "home".

The wind did fill to about 10 to 15 knots and provided some large oscillations between 200 degrees and 250 degrees during the race. The boats that hit the shifts just right each time made huge gains, however, if you got caught on the wrong side it was hard to recover. The shifts only took place every 40 minutes or so, which created a wait and see, patience game. The out-going current meant that you didn't need to go to a shore but boats would go to each side of the course and create some major leverage of about 1 to 2 miles at times.

The larger boats were able to catch up with the fleet on day two much better and the first boat to finish was racing class 1 boat, J'AI TU, a J/35 owned by Gary Bennett and skippered by JB Turner. The J/105 KEEMAH won the overall by 1 minute and 35 seconds. Congratulations to KEEMAH and Don Logan's crew on a second consecutive Overall win of the Rockland Castine Regatta.

On Saturday a party of over 175 sailors took place a Dennet's Wharf restaurant. Which became really interesting when the power went out due to a small squall that went through Castine just after everyone had hit the docks and were cleaned up after racing. The Dennet's staff was great and kept everything on schedule cooking with head lamps in their kitchen and serving all the sailors on time. Just about the time dinner was over the power came back on and the band was able provide great music for dancing until the sailors couldn't take it any longer.

On Sunday a party under the tent of the Rockland green was a perfect end to a great weekend with a full BBQ with burgers, dogs, chicken and all the fixings and some great salads to top off the experience.

Rising Tide Beer was enjoyed each day with their "Spinnaker" and "Maine Island Trail Ale" brands providing some great refreshment to the crowds of thirsty sailors. For more Rockland Castine Regatta sailing informationJ/Teams Support Leukemia Cup in ChesapeakeJ/24, J/70, J/105 and J/PHRF sailors Enjoy Southern Hospitality
(Fishing Bay, VA)- The Southern Chesapeake Leukemia Cup regatta, hosted by Fishing Bay Yacht Club and Stingray Harbor Yacht Club, was held July 13 & 14. One-design fleets of J/24s, J/70s and J/105s along with two J/109s in PHRF sailed the four race series over two days. In addition to good sailing the regatta raised more than $85,000 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

The fleet was blessed with somewhat remarkable conditions considering that the mid-Atlantic region had been baking in extremely hot, muggy conditions for the past few weeks. For Saturday's racing, the sailing was postponed due to thunderstorms rolling up the bay earlier in the day, but it soon turned out to be a fantastic day for sailing with the wind building from 10 kts to gusts over thirty kts under clear skies towards evening. Sunday's racing was equally challenging with light, but steady, breezes all day long.

Debuting in the regatta for the first time were the J/70s, with a competitive fleet of five boats. Taking the class honors was Ron Thompson with a leading tally of 1-2-1-1 for 5 pts. Behind them was a battle for the podium with three boats, all tied with six pts each after the first day- the two Vortex Racing boats (Vortex and GetMyBoat.com) and Drake Johnstone's CAT'S PAJAMAS. In the end, VORTEX took second with a 3-3-2-2 for 10 pts and GetMyBoat.com took third with a 2-5-3-3 tally for 13 pts.

The J/24 saw five boats participating. Showing the fleet their transom most of the time was Neil Ford & Liz Biondi's ROCKET J with a scorching hot scoreline of 1-1-2-1 for 5 pts. Taking second after a slow start was Scott Collins on KOBAYASHI MARU with a 5-4-1-2 tally for 12 pts. They narrowly edged out Alan Bomar, who sailed ROUNDABOUT to a 2-2-5-4 score for 13 pts.

In PHRF A, the J/105s and J/109s competed as a fleet. Taking first in class was Craig Wright's J/109 AFTERTHOUGHT with a dominant 1-1-1-2 record for 5 pts. Second was the other J/109 DOUBLE EAGLE sailed by Sam Mitchener with a equally consistent 2-2-2-3 scores for 9 pts. Scored as a Sub-division were the J/105s, with David Clark's CORRYVRECKAN taking top honors. For more Fishing Bay YC Leukemia Cup sailing informationJ/Community

What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide

* The J/125 TIMESHAVER takes the Dana Point Offshore series- over the 4th of July weekend, the J-125 TIMESHAVER skippered and helmed by Viggo Torbensen with Keith Magnussen as tactician won the Dana Point series A class and topped the entire fleet for the perpetual trophy as well. Here's the report from Viggo himself-

"The eight race regatta that was comprised of four random leg and four windward-leewards, were not exactly the strength of the J/125. To make matters more difficult, we were the biggest boat on the course by a long shot, lots of boat handling on short courses. Sporting a wardrobe of Ullman sails custom tailored by "KMag", TIMESHAVER managed to keep the competition behind to secure the name of yet another J/Boat to be engraved into the silver! Stay cool my friends. Hope to see you around the race track again soon!" Sail fast, Viggo. Editor's note- Viggo and team are hoping to crush the competition in the fast downwind race from Santa Barbara to King's Harbor (LA) this weekend.

* Attention all J/70 sailors! J/World Annapolis is anxiously awaiting the delivery of their J/70 (USA 357) this August and are planning events for the boat in 2013 and 2014. There is a unique opportunity for new and potential J/70 buyers to “try before they buy” while also getting top level racing and boat-handling coaching as well as experiencing the first J/70 North American Championship this September.

Beginning Monday, September 23, 2013 J/World Annapolis will be conducting a three day training clinic followed by three days of racing in the 2013 J/70 North American Championship. This six day racing event is patterned after our “super-week” training program and includes on-board coaching for all six days, three days of pre-event multi-boat training, daily video and still image debriefing and nightly discussions with J/70 sailmakers and local racing experts.

This program is perfect for new and prospective J/70 owners for several reasons. First and foremost, owners quickly maximize their sailing experience by working through the boat-handling gremlins that can plague self taught teams.

Second, the methodology is easily transferred to crews when clients return to their teams - making the owner's programs stronger. J/World believes well-rounded racing education requires cross-training, and our program will put each client into each of the roles onboard. During practice and the regatta clients will rotate through each of the roles, gaining valuable experience in every position and valuable knowledge that will help them train their own crews.

Finally, because this will be an “owner crewed” event J/World are creating relationships that make racing fun and create important peer-to-peer networks that strengthen the class.

J/World Annapolis have nearly two decades of experience conducting this style of training program in the J/80 and look forward to bringing their experience and training program to the J/70 class. In addition to the J/70 North Americans they will be conducting this style of program at Key West Race Week, St Petersburg NOOD, Miami Race Week, Charleston Race Week and Annapolis NOODs.

The J/70 North American six day regatta program is $2,495 per person and includes three days of training, three days of racing, event registration, crew gear and lunch each day. It is exclusive of travel and lodging.

Please contact them if you have an interest in learning how to sail your J/70 faster and better! Contact is Kristen Berry at ph# 410-280-2040 (Office) or 410-599-3542 (Cell) or email- kristen@jworldannapolis.com

* J/70s are sailing in areas notorious for having weed & kelp issues. Lightweight, quick-to-deploy carbon sticks are often a great answer to the difficult issue of getting weed/kelp off the bottom of the rudder and the keel where the "weed whacker" doesn't reach. For places like New England, California and lakes like Minnetonka, SD Boatworks has come up with an elegant solution- the J/70 carbon fiber kelp/ weed stick. Here's a Youtube video of how it works on the rudder and when you lie down on your stomach next to the shrouds, you can use this to also get rid of weed on the bottom of your keel!

If you'd like to get one, please contact Julie Servais at SD Boatworks- ph# 619-592-8682 (office) or 619-632-2444 (cell) or julie@sdboatworks.com. Their website is http://www.SDBoatworks.com

* J/160 AVATAR headed for the Caribbean, again! We LOVE these updates from our cruising J sailors that continue to criss-cross the Seven Seas. This one comes from Alan Fougere, sailing his beloved J/160 AVATAR.

Alan sent us an email update commenting on their passage south this winter, "In mid-December AVATAR completed her sixth transit to her winter Caribbean home, Grand Cruz Bay, St. John, USVI (seen above) from her home port in Quissett (Falmouth), MA. A crew of three, Captain Alan (e.g. me), Crew Pablo Brissett and Mark Conroy, covered the 1,500 nm trip in in her best time to date- 7 Days 5 Hours, averaging 8.7 kts, that's about 208 nm per day! Amazing passage it was! Rainbow at right far offshore was some of the amazing phenomenon we experienced on this fast offshore passage.

AVATAR will participate in the BVI Sailing Festival/Regatta again in 2013, where last year she won the Nanny Key Cup Cruising Class race around the Island of Virgin Gorda. Here are some photos for you to share with the J/Community at-large. Enjoy!"
Best, Alan Fougere/ AVATAR

* Bill & Judy Stellin recently had an interview about cruising on their J/42 in the Wall St Journal called "Retiring on the Open Sea". The Wall St Journal asked Bill to reply to dozens of questions that flooded into the WSJ's Editor desks. Here's the update:

Retiring on the Sea: Answering Readers' QuestionsAdvice about selecting a boat, ocean crossings, itineraries and safety

The article in our WSJ Online December retirement report about eight years spent sailing the Mediterranean— "Retiring to the Open Sea"— prompted many questions and comments from readers. We asked William Stellin, who wrote the story, to answer some of the most common queries.

WSJ- "What kind and make of boat did you use? Looking back, would you have picked a different boat?"

Bill- "In 1995-96, J/Boats of Newport, RI, came out with a new cruiser/racer model, the J/42. We bought hull No. 6 of this popular 42-foot sailboat and named it JAYWALKER. This was our fourth boat since beginning sailing in 1975.

Although long-distance cruising wasn't what we had in mind when we purchased JAYWALKER, it soon became apparent it had the ability to carry us easily and safely anywhere we wanted to go. Because the boat is light, it sails well in light winds, which means very little motoring is necessary.

People often ask (and argue) about what boat is best for cruising. Any boat that is strong, safe, fast, comfortable and easily handled by two people should fit the bill. One thing for sure, fast is fun—and important when trying to avoid bad weather."

The J Cruising Community J Cruisers continue their adventures around the world, below are a selection of most excellent "blogs" written by their prolific publishers. Some terribly amusing anecdotes and pearls of wisdom are contained in their blogs. Read some! You'll love it.

* The J/42 JARANA continues their epic voyage around the Pacific. Continue to read about Bill and Kathy Cuffel's big adventure cruising the South Pacific headed for New Zealand. Their blog is here: http://www.svjarana.blogspot.com/

* John and Mary Driver are sailing their J/130 SHAZAM for extended cruising in the Atlantic basin. At this time, John and Mary finished their double-handed crossing of the Atlantic, landing in Portugal on their J/130 Shazam after completion of their ARC Rally. Read the latest news at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/shazam/.

* Several J/160 owners are island hopping across the world's oceans, fulfilling life long dreams to cruise the Pacific islands, the Caribbean islands, the Indian Ocean and all points in between. Anyone for Cape Horn and penguins?? Read more about their adventures and escapades (like our J/109 GAIA, J/42s PAX and JAYWALKER and J/130 SHAZAM friends above).

- Bill and Susan Grun on the J/160 AVANTE are also sailing in the Pacific archipelago, read more about their great adventures on their blog (http://web.me.com/susangrun). Read about their latest adventures as they've gotten to New Zealand- "Avante Cruises the Pacific".

- Eric and Jenn on the J/160 MANDALAY also sailed the Pacific archipelago, read more on their blog at http://www.sailmandalay.com. Eric and Jenn are J/World alumni took MANDALAY up and down the West Coast (Mexico, CA), then to the South Pacific and New Zealand. MANDALAY is back in San Francisco now, and in the J/World fleet--she is available for skippered charters, private instruction, and corporate/executive groups.